Child Transmutation
by Sunlight Memory
Summary: Kind of AU. Something happens, and when Edward and Alphonse showes up at HQ, Al's back in his body and Ed's been turned into a three years old. Can their friends find a way to turn Ed back to his normal self? Edwin, Royai and others.
1. Chapter 1

**Just a story that fell into my head when I where suppose to go to bed. Hope you guys like it.**

**Edwin and Royai will come later in the story. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

Chapter 1

The rain had fallen down on East City the entire day. In one of the office at East HQ, a man about twenty-nine sat working with some papers. Black hair covered his eyes, before he turned his head to look out of the window. Dark eyes kept a gaze at the street under them. No one walked there at the moment. The door into the office opened, and a young woman with blond hair pulled up with a buckle came in. Her red-brownish eyes scanned the pile of paperwork at the man's desk, before her gaze met the man's.

"No one has seen them the whole day, sir," she said. The man sighed. Trust Fullmetal and his brother to make people worry. The woman shot him an understanding look, before she turned around, and walked out of the office. She knew the two boys should have been back yesterday, and she knew her boss worried about them. After all, she did too. All of them did.

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A young boy dressed in a huge suit of armor opened his eyes, who he had locked them in the first place was a mystery. After all, only his soul were in the armor, linked fast by a seal in the armor's neck, made by his older brother a day things went bad. Slowly, he rose from the floor he had been lying on. He was in some sort of a basement, or at least he thought it was a basement. Then he started to panic. Where was his brother? He had been with him when they were attacked from behind, so he should be here to, right?

Then, his eyes fell on a small form on the floor just some steps away and a dark shadow a little behind it. Around the small form, was a huge circle, very much alike the ones used in alchemy. The shadow leaned down, and touched it. White light started to fill the basement, and the boy in the suit of armor did the only thing he could think of with his older brother lying in the circle; he ran for it, and stepped inside the circle just as the transmutation started. Before he could do anything, the armor he had been locked in, started to disappear. When he looked down, he could see his own feet and legs. For some weird reason, he got his body back. The one his brother and he had used four years to look for. The light faded, and the dark basement came back. The boy stared around himself. The shadow had disappeared at some moment, leaving him and his brother alone in the room. The boy looked down on his brother, and couldn't help but stare.

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The sun had gone down, and most of the officers at East HQ had gone home for the day. Only the black-haired man and his subordinates were still there. As usual, they were doing paperwork; threaten with a gun if they didn't do what they were supposed to do.

The clock where almost eight when the door into the outside office went up and a young boy at the age of fifteen came in. From how the boy's light-brown hair clung to his face and the sound of his breathing, most of the people in the room guessed he had ran all the way to get there. Light-brown eyes looked over the room. The officers couldn't help but stare at him. There was something familiar with the boy, like they had seen him somewhere before. Normally, only two boys came into that office, and none of them looked like that boy. The boy was dressed in a black T-shirt, with a white jacked over, and a brown jean.

First when he took another step into the room, the group noticed he had something on his back. His gaze went to the only female in the room, the blond woman. Then, she found out where she had the boy from.

"Al-Alphonse?" she said shocked. The boy couldn't do anything but nod. A blond man with a cigarette in his mouth, dumped down in the chair behind him. He didn't even know he had risen when the boy had come into the room.

"But. . . What happened, and where is the Chief?" he asked. The boy looked at him.

"I don't know. I woke up in a basement somewhere. A shadow used some sort of alchemy at Brother, which I happened to step on in the wrong moment. When the transmutation stopped, I was like this. Brother's right here, by the way," the boy said and at the last thing, he turned around so they could see what he had on his back. There, in a mess of black, red and golden, sat a small boy. From what the officers would have guessed, the boy was about two years old. The woman went up to the boys, and lifted the smallest of them into her arms.

"Is that really Edward?" one of the officers, a man with black hair, dark eyes and glasses, said. He hadn't needed to ask. Only one person they knew had golden hair.

"How old is he?" the blond man asked.

"Three, if I remember right from how he looked when we were younger," Alphonse answered. The woman smiled softly down at the sleeping child, before she gave him back to his younger brother. Before anyone could do anything, she had walked into the office behind her. Most likely to tell their boss what had happened.

**A/N: Please tell me what you think. It's kind of bad, after all I wrote this around two in the morningXD I'm in trouble if my dad finds out I'm still up-.-'**


	2. Chapter 2

**I was supposed to update it earlier, but the Internet was down. Thank you so much for the reviews! Because of them, I tried wrote even faster than usual.**

**I am sorry if some of the characters are out of character, and if my grammar sucks. English isn't my main language.**

**Story parings: Edwin, Royai and some others.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Chapter 2**

"Please don't say you're trying to tell me that that kid is Fullmetal," Roy couldn't help but stare at the small child lying asleep in Riza's arms. Alphonse had just retold the story of what that had happened, this time with a little more details.

"It is, sir," Riza answered softly. The man dropped down in the nearest chair. He was in shock, mostly from the weird way the two boys have reached their goal in, but also because somebody had dared to turn one of the two into a three year old. The poor guy was as good as dead if the brothers ever got their hands on him. From Alphonse's tale, he was almost sure it was a man.

"Just one question," a man with orange hair said.

"What is it, Breda?" Riza moved her gaze to the man.

"Does he still has his automail?" most of the people in the room looked at Alphonse or Riza. They hadn't even thought of the automail before now.

"Yeah," Alphonse said, looking over at his older brother. Havoc looked like he was thinking hard for a minute, before he rose from his chair, and went toward Riza and Edward.

"So. . . He has always been small for his age," the man said, holding his cigarette in the mouth at the same time. Before anyone could do anything, Riza had taken the cigarette and tossed it away.

"No smoking around children, Havoc!" she said angry. The man moved away from her quickly. He knew better than to make her even angrier. Some of the officers started to laugh.

"Your brother knows how to sleep through things, at least, Al," Fuery smiled. The teenager laughed.

"Yeah, sometimes I think he could have slept through anything," he answered. Silence filled the room, before Breda opened his mouth again:

"What are we going to do?" Silence.

"Find a way to turn him back?" the group looked over at their boss. The man rose from the chair.

"After all, he has a girl waiting for him to come back home, doesn't he?" Roy continued, smiling toward Riza and the two boys. The officers looked at each other, before they nodded.

"We will help!" all of them shouted as loud as they could, before they thought of the sleeping child. Luckily, Edward just turned around in Riza's arms, and kept sleeping.

"We will start tomorrow. Now, everybody head home for a good night's sleep," the colonel said. Alphonse was about to collect Edward from Riza's arms, when the woman stopped all of the officers.

"Wait a minute. Alphonse, where are you and your brother sleeping?" she said. The teenager looked curious at her for a moment.

"At a hotel not far from here; Brother ordered a room for the week there before everything happened. . ." he answered. Riza shook her head.

"You are not sleeping in a hotel at a time like this. But I guess you would have to do so for the night. Can you come to HQ tomorrow morning?" she said to the boy. Alphonse nodded, and took his brother from the woman's arms. He waved to the officers before he disappeared out the door.

The rest of them started to do as the two boys; packing their stuff and go home. While he packed, Roy couldn't stop thinking about how good Riza had looked with a child in her arms.

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The first thing Alphonse did when he reached the hotel-room they had ordered the day before, was putting his smaller older brother in one of the two beds, and get a phone so he could call Winry. He almost couldn't believe he was back in his body. It was weird, after being in that armor for so many years.

"_Hello, Rockbell automail, what can we do for you?"_ a girl-voice said on the other side of the phone-line.

"Hey, Winry?" Alphonse asked.

"_Alphonse?! Is that really you? Have something happened? I mean, you guys never call."_Alphonse swallowed. He knew Winry was going to be really mad, after all, he knew she had feelings for his brother.

"Well. . . The thing is. . ."

"_The idiot is in hospital again, right? For ruining my automail. How many times to I have to tell him not to fight so much! I'm going to kill him if he ruined my automail!"_ Alphonse held the phone away from his ears while she shouted again and again about what an idiot his brother was. When he heard she had finally calmed down, he took the phone back.

"Would you kill a child, Winry?" he asked in a small voice.

"_. . . What do you mean by that?"_ was the answer he got.

"Brother has been turned into a three year old. The automail has also gotten smaller."

"_What!? Are you s__erious? Wait. . . Your voice. . . Al? Do you have your body back?"_

"Yeah, I have. The person how turned Brother into a three year old. . . The transmutation-circle he used did it."

"_I knew you guys could do it! Just hold on for a minute, okay? __**Hey, Granny! I'm going to East City!**_ _Al, I'm coming to you guys as soon as I can, okay? I'll catch the train tonight. Bye!"_

"See you soon, Winry," they hang up on each other. Alphonse stood in silence for some time. Too many things had happened in a short among of time.

"Al?" a small voice said behind him. The boy turned around, and his eyes met golden ones. His brother sat awake on the bed he had put him in, staring at his younger brother with sleepy eyes.

"When did you get youw body back?" the child said. The teenager smiled to his brother.

"Not so long ago. How much do you remember?" he asked. The child looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Bits and pieces," Edward answered, his eyelids almost falling down as he talked. Alphonse walked over, and laid his brother down on the bed again.

"Go to sleep, Brother. We can talk about it tomorrow," he said softly. Edward closed his eyes, and fell asleep a moment later.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it^^ Please tell me what you think. By the way, I have a question for you who read this story: Who should Edward and Alphonse end up living with 'till they can turn Edward back to his real age? I couldn't decide, so I thought I should ask:)**


	3. Chapter 3

**First of all: thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ That really makes me want to continue this story. I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Chapter 3**

Jean sighed as he parked his car outside the hotel the Elric-brothers usual stayed at when they were in East City. Earlier that day, he had gotten a call from Riza, asking if he could pick up the brothers on his way to HQ.

Why did he have to pick up the brats? When he got inside, he asked the receptionist for the room-number to the Elric-brothers. It only took a minute to find the right door with the right number.

Just when he was supposed to knock on the door, a loud noise rang through the corridor from behind the door. Then, a small clap and the familiar sound of a transmutation taking place. For a moment he was really unsure if he should knock on the door. But then again, Riza would have killed him if he showed up at work without them. The man then knocked on the door, and waited. Fast steps came toward the door, and it opened before he could move away. The door opened, and Alphonse showed up in front of him.

"Oh, hello, Havoc," he said calmly, like there had never happened anything inside the hotel-room. The man couldn't help but stare, before he got a grip of himself.

"Hello, kid. I was asked to take you and the Chief to HQ by First Lieutenant Hawkeye. . . Mind if I ask what that loud noise was about?" the teenager smiled.

"Not at all; I accidentally called Brother small. He got mad and that resulted in that his water-glass went in the floor and broke. But he fixed it again at once." Then the boy left out a sigh.

"Brother can be such a child when it comes to his height," he said, shaking his head. Jean started to laugh, just as the boy they had been talking about, came toward them. The man noticed that the child had gotten smaller clothes. Edward went right to Alphonse, before he stopped and looked at Jean.

"Second Lieutenant Havoc," the child said in a small voice. The man stopped. He hadn't believed the kid to remember anything.

"Hey, Chief," he answered smiling. Alphonse looked down at his older brother.

"Brother, we are going to HQ, okay?" he said softly. The small boy stared up at him for some seconds, before he nodded, and started to walk toward the stairs. Both Alphonse and Jean had to run forward to stop the child before he went down.

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"_Are you serious, Roy?"_Roy sat in his office, and as usual, on the phone with Maes Hughes.

"Yes, I am serious, Hughes. The kid has been turned into a three year old," Roy said, irritated that his friend would question something like that.

"_Okay, okay! No need to be irritated! By the way, have you looked at the pictures of Gracia and Elicia I sent you, yet? Aren't they just lovely?"_ Roy rolled his eyes.

"No, I haven't. Now, I have to go back to my work."

"_Wait! __So Ed's a three year old now? Hmm. . . Maybe I should take Gracia and Elicia on a holiday to East City. So that you could see how big Elicia has become! See you soon, Roy! And by the way, get yourself a wife!"_ with that, the man in Central hang up and Roy was able to return to his 'beloved' paperwork.

The door opened into the office, allowing Riza to step into the room. The man looked up at her, and his best friend's words rang through his head as the picture of Riza holding a child in her arms flashed through his head.

". . . Are here. Sir?" her words snapped him back into reality. What had she been saying? Something about that someone was here. The Elric-brothers, perhaps? He rose and followed the woman into the outside office. The whole group sat there, even the two brothers. Edward looked rather angry there he was placed on one of the chairs, while Alphonse talked to everybody. All of them went silent when Roy and Riza came into the room. The woman looked over at Edward, before she smiled softly to him.

"Come on, Edward," she said, and started to walk toward the door. The boy looked over at his younger brother, who nodded, before he followed the woman out of the room. Once they were gone, the officers started to talk.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I have no room at all," Havoc said before anyone else could say or do anything.

"Me too!" Breda, Falman and Fuery said quickly.

"And Riza got Black Hayate," Havoc continued. Alphonse started to laugh low, knowing the group good enough to know how most of the conversations ended. Roy looked over at the boy, before he made up his mind.

"Fine, Al, you guys can stay at my place 'till we get your brother back to his normal self," he said. The boy smiled.

"Thank you, colonel!" the boy said.

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It was late when Roy finally could drive home for the night. It was weird, having two kids in the backseat of the car as he drove home. Edward didn't seem to like the thought about staying with him, but Alphonse took it okay.

Once they stopped outside Roy's house, he could almost sense the boys' shock over how big it was. Maybe they hadn't thought he would live in a real house? As they got inside, the man started to explain were everything was. The last thing they got to was the bedrooms. At that time, Edward was so tired that he almost felled asleep while he was walking.

"You can take these bedrooms," the man said, pointing at two bedrooms wall-in-wall. Alphonse thanked from them both, and almost carried his brother to bed as the man headed for the bathroom.

On the way there, they had stopped at the hotel so the kids could get their things. The teenager pulled out Edward's normal sleeping clothes from the suitcase they always dragged with them everywhere. He had used big parts of the last night to transmute his brother's clothes smaller so they could fit him. After changing Edward's clothing into the sleeping clothes, he laid his brother on the bed and went into the room next to it. He fell asleep as fast as his head hit the pillow.

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**A/N: O.o Does all my chapters end with somebody falling asleep? Heh. . . Hope you liked it^^ Please tell me what you think:) By the way, I don't know if I can update before Thursday. I'm going on a holiday to Sweden, and I don't know if they have Internet there. I shall try to at least update one more chapter before I leave, but if not, it's because they don't have Internet at the hotel or because I am away.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Chapter 4**

Roy had problems falling asleep that night. He laid awake for several hours, listening to the sound around in the house. In two rooms not far from his, slept the boys he over the years had started to think of as his own sons.

From what Alphonse had told him, Edward had some of his memories, like that their mother had died and they had tried to get her back, about Alphonse in the Armor, memories of some gate Roy had never heard about, of all the officers under Roy, and some that were from the boys' childhood, like about their teacher and all the friends they had in Resembool.

After a lot of thinking, he finally fell asleep.

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Edward was the first one to wake up the day after. He left the bedroom quietly, and started to try to find the way to the library Roy had showed them the day before. Even if he was a three year old, he still remembered how to read.

Everything was so big around him, making him feel even smaller than he already was. . . Had he just thought of himself as small? He was tall! Tall!

The boy reached the library, were he at once started to look for a good book. Most of the books had boring titles, titles he didn't even care about. After looking through most of the books nearest the door, the boy found one he wanted to read. Just too bad that it stood on the top of one of the bookshelf. He looked around for something to stand on, and found a weird-looking chair. Carefully, the boy dragged the chair to the bookshelf, and climbed up at it to reach the book. But, even if he stood on the chair, the boy still didn't reach it. Since nothing in the room was tall enough for him to stand on the reach the book, Edward ended up taking down another one. This one didn't look that exiting, but at least it made him have something to do 'till Alphonse woke up.

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The first thing Alphonse did once he woke up was leaving his room to check on Edward. At the moment he came out in the corridor, he noticed something were wrong. The door into his brother's room was open. He hurried inside to see if his brother was still there.

The pillow and the blanket lay on the floor, leaving the bed uncovered. Edward was not there.

The teenager ran out of the room, and down towards Roy's bedroom. The man was still asleep when he got inside, and the boy ran up to the side of the bed and started to wake him up.

"Colonel! Brother's missing!" he shouted. The man opened an eye, gazing at the kid.

"What?" he asked, only half awake.

"Brother's not in his room! He's missing!" Alphonse shouted again. The man shot up from his bed, and had almost left the room already before Alphonse could do anything.

Soon they were running around in the house, shouting Edward's name and nicknames. Alphonse was the first of them to notice that the door into the library stood open. Wondering if his brother had hid himself near the books, he went inside. And there, with his back to one of the bookshelf, sat Edward. By the look on his face, the child was far gone into the book.

"Brother?" the teenager said softly, trying to get the child's attention. When this didn't work, he tried something else.

"Shorty?" his brother's attention went from the book and right to Alphonse.

"I am not showt!" he cried out. Alphonse smiled, before turning his head to the door.

"Colonel, he's in here!" he called out. The man showed up only a minute later.

"So he was hiding in here all the time?" he asked. Edward stared up at him coldly. Alphonse rolled his eyes, before looking at the clock in the back of the room.

"Uh, Colonel? Don't you have work today?" he asked, seeing that it was far beyond starting time for the military. The man smiled and shook his head.

"No, I have a free-day today," he answered. Alphonse were about to say something else, when someone knocked on the door. Edward rose from the place he had been sitting at and ran toward the front-door. He had to jump to get the door open. Once it opened, he looked outside to see who it was. There, in normal clothing, stood Riza. She sat down so she was at Edward height, and smiled softly to the child.

"Hello, Edward," she said.

"Hawkeye," he greeted.

"Please, just call me Riza. I'm not at work right now," she smiled.

"Uh. . . Wiza," the boy said. Roy and Alphonse showed up behind him shortly.

"Oh, hello, Riza," the man said, noticing that she didn't had her uniform on.

"Hello, Roy, Alphonse," she said as she rose from the ground.

"Hello, First Lieutenant Hawkeye."

"Just Riza, Alphonse, I'm not at work."

"Mind if I ask what you are doing here so early?" Roy asked, trying to remember if he had done all of his paperwork.

"I'm here to take the boys on shopping, if they want to, that is," the woman smiled.

"Why not? After all, we have to get Winry at the station later today," Alphonse said, before he picked up his brother, who tried to get free from his brother's hold, and went up to change into something else than sleeping-clothes. Roy looked over at the woman who worked under him. She looked pretty with her hair down around her shoulders, dressed in a white shirt and a black jean.

"You wanna come too, sir?" she asked after a while. The man stared at her for some minutes, not understanding what she meant. Then, he remembered she was taking the boys out for the day.

"Roy, Riza, we're not at work, remember? And yes, I think I will," he smiled, before turning around and go upside to change his clothes like the boys.

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The four of them had been out the whole day when they started to head to the station to pick up Edward's mechanic. They had been in several stores and bought stuff to the boys; new clothes to both of them, along with some other things they needed.

At the moment, all of them were eating a huge ice-cream each while they made their way toward the station. Riza was holding all of Edward's shopping-bags, since he was too small to carry them himself, while Alphonse held his own. Roy walked beside Riza, keeping his gaze at the place in front of them. Edward tried to keep up with the three others, but since they were much bigger than him, he had to run. Then, someone lifted him up, and placed him on the person's shoulders. The child couldn't help but stare in shock. Roy had at some point gotten behind him and lifted him up.

At first, the boy didn't like being placed at the man's shoulders, but after a while he figured out it wasn't that bad since it made him able to keep up with the others and see more than he did from the ground. Alphonse laughed at him while he walked beside the man and his brother, while Riza smiled softly to them both. They looked like father and son that way.

Then, a shout rang through the street:

"EDWARD AND ALPHONSE ELRIC, WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU TWO BEEN DOING SINCE YOU LEFT RESEMBOOL THE LAST TIME?!?!" Winry had arrived East City.

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**A/N: I was able to update before I left for Sweden^^ It's not gonna be another update before Thursday, the reason: I'm not allowed to bring my PC with me, and it isn't Internet thereT.T But I hope you enjoyed this chapter^^ The ending is kind of bad. . .**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you so much for the reviews or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Chapter 5**

Before any of them could do anything, Edward had climbed down from Roy's shoulders, and hidden behind the two adults. Winry meant the wrench, and he didn't really want to have a meeting with it right now.

The blond girl came towards them in a hurry, furious and angry at her childhood-friends. She were about to shout again when she noticed Alphonse. Winry stopped out of shock, letting go of all the things she had in her hands, and didn't move for some seconds.

"You weren't kidding, Al. You are really back!" the girl smiled at the last part, and went to hug her friend. Alphonse was too shocked to do anything. He had almost expected her to throw her wrench, not hug him.

After some time, she pulled away.

"Where's your brother, Al?" she asked softly. Edward swallowed there he stood behind Riza and Roy.

Then, the two adults took one step to the side, leaving the boy right in front of the girl's view. If Winry had been in shock when she had seen Alphonse, it was nothing like when she got her eyes on Edward. Before she even knew what she was doing, the girl had taken some steps towards the boy. She sat down on her knees, waiting for him to come closer. Edward understood what she wanted him to do, and went closer. At the moment he came within the reach of her arms, Winry pulled him close to her, hugging him hard. The child put his small arms around her neck, and buried his head in her shoulder. Winry was nice when she didn't have or used her wrench.

"Oh, Edward, what have they done to you?" she whispered. He was almost sure she was crying. He didn't like that. He didn't like that Winry cried at all.

The girl looked up at the two adults. Both of them could see the tears that still wanted to run down her cheeks, but where held back because of the girl's brave front.

"Is there anywhere we could go so I can check his automail?" she asked, still holding the child in her arms. Riza and Roy looked at each other, before the man nodded.

"We can go over to my place. The Elric-brothers are staying there 'till we can find a way to turn Fullmetal back," he said. The girl nodded, and rose from the ground. After she had picked up her stuff again, the five of them went toward Roy's house.

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Winry sat down on one of the chairs around the kitchen-table, next to Alphonse.

"There's nothing wrong with the automail. It has been transmuted smaller, but nothing else," she said as she sat down. Alphonse, Riza and Roy left out a sigh of relief; all of them had been a little scared if there was something wrong with it.

"Where is Edward anyway?" Riza asked after not seeing the boy inside the room.

"He went to the library after I was done checking his automail, I think," the blond girl said after a while. Alphonse and Roy nodded. That didn't shock them much when they thought about where the child had been that morning.

"What happened, by the way? You said something about a man using some sort of a transmutation-circle, but what happened before and after that?" Winry asked shortly.

"Brother and I were on our way back to the hotel we usual stay at when we are here in East City. On the way, some crazy person knocked us out and kidnapped us. When I woke up, Brother and I were in some sort of a basement. Brother was lying in a transmutation-circle, I don't really remember what it looked like, and a person leaned down to touch it. I did the first thing I could think of; running inside the transmutation-circle to get Brother out. I got caught in the middle of the transmutation, and before I knew it, I had my body back. When it stopped, the unknown person was gone, I had my body back and Brother was turned into a three year old. I did the only thing I could think of; taking Brother to HQ for help. You know the rest of the story," the teenager-boy said as an answer to the girl's question. Winry nodded, before she looked like she was deep in thoughts.

"I'm staying with you 'till you have turned Edward back," she said, almost whispering. Alphonse opened his mouth to say something, but the teenager-girl laid her hand over it before he could say anything.

"I don't care if it gets scary or dangerous. I'm staying, Alphonse," she said serious, using his really name.

"There is an empty room here you can use, so that you are close to the Elric-brothers all the time," Roy said, pointing up the stairs and toward the corridor where the Elric-brothers had their bedrooms. Alphonse and Winry exchanged a look, before the girl nodded. It was for the best if they stayed close to each other.

"But, Winwy, thewe is one thing; if things tuwns out weally, weally bad, you awe going back to Wesembool even if we would have to bind you to a chaiw and ask somebody to watch you all the way thewe," a tiny voice said behind them. All of them turned around, and found Edward staring up at them. According to what he had just said, he had been there since the very beginning of the conversation.

"Oh, Fullmetal? I'm sorry we didn't see you earlier. Maybe the table is too tall?" Roy said, smiling. All of them could see the anger rise inside the small boy.

"WHO AWE YOU CALLING SO SHOWT THAT YOU CAN'T SEE HIM OVEW THE EDGE OF THE TABLE?!?!?!" he shouted. Alphonse and Winry rolled their eyes. Whatever age Edward was on, he would never change when it came to that point.

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**A/N: Hope you like it^^ Please tell me what you think.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

Chapter 6

It had been about a week now since Winry came to East City. Not much had happened since Edward had been turned into three-year old. At the moment, the two brothers, Winry and Roy were eating breakfast in the kitchen, leaving the rest of the house defend-less.

Since they didn't have a tall enough chair for Edward to sit in, Roy had put a bunch of pillows on the small alchemist's chair. At least this made him able to see over the edge of the table.

While they ate, they tried to decide what to do for the rest of the day.

"What about some mechanic-shopping?" Winry asked.  
"We did that yesterday, Winry," Alphonse pointed out, while his older, yet much smaller and in a way younger, brother nodded as many times as he could during Alphonse's talk.  
"So? You can never do too much shopping when it comes to automail-stuff!" Roy was far gone into thoughts to even notice the two teenagers fight about how awesome automail was. For the moment, he was thinking hard about the day before, when they had been out in the city. He had gotten a lot of dates thanks to the small child.

"Hey, Fullmetal?" he said, looking at the kid. The small boy's eyes went towards him, and waited for him to speak.  
"How about a trip to the city so we can buy some ice-cream? You would like that, wouldn't you?" after just a week with the three kids, he had easily figured out about how much Edward loved ice-cream, even if it was made out of milk. Just as the words left his mouth, the two teenagers turned their head to stare angry at him.

"You are just using Edward to get a date!" Winry yelled madly.  
"How can you use a three year old like that?!" Alphonse shouted.

"Hey! Weren't you to arguing just a minute ago? Can you please go back to that?" the man said, raising his hands in the air.

"Only if you promise not to use Brother to get more dates!" The teenager-boy said furious.

"Fine, I'm not going to use Fullmetal to get more dates," Roy said, defeated. He knew the two of them would go to Riza if he didn't keep the promise he had just given, and that would put a bullet in the middle of his forehead.

A loud knock on the door sounded trough the house. Edward slipped down from his chair, and ran toward the door before anyone else could do so. He used his normal jump to get the helve and open the door. The first thing to meet him was the flash of a camera. The boy blinked some times, before he looked up at the smiling face of Maes Hughes.

"I guess Roy weren't kidding when he said you had been turned smaller," the newcomer said, grinning.

"WHO AWE YOU CALLING SO SHOWT THAT HE WOULD DISAPPEAW IF HE TUWNED ANY SHOWEW?!?!" the boy yelled. Maes started smiling like an idiot.

"AWW! That is so sweet!" he said, clapping his hands together. The boy stared at him angry, before he turned around and ran inside again. The man followed him, and stopped the moment he reached the kitchen. Edward had ran over to Winry, and taken a hiding behind her chair, away from the camera-crazy man.

"Yo, Roy!" he said. The other man looked up from where he was sitting around the table with Alphonse and Winry, and stared confused at his best friend.

"Hello, Maes. I hope you don't mind me asking, but aren't you supposed to be in Central?" Roy asked.

"I told Gracia about what you told me had happened to Ed, and she asked if we should take a trip over to check on you guys. So I took Gracia and Elicia with me on a little holiday in East City, just like I told you over the phone!" he smiled, before he got a face that said he had just been reminded of something.

"You should pack your swimming-stuff. Riza asked me to go and pick you up; the whole group of us are going to the beach," he continued, smiling brightly.

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"So we got something to do for the day, after all," Alphonse said.

"Yeah. . ." Winry answered, looking around. They were at a beach on one of the side of a lake that lay just some minutes outside of East City. All of the officers under Roy were there, along with Maes, Gracia and their daughter Elicia.

Jean, Kain, Heymans and Vato were out in the cold water; swimming around or just playing, Edward and Elicia build sandcastles in the sand, the boy sometimes transmuting a really beautiful one for the young girl, while Maes, Gracia, Roy and Riza were talking about something right next to the two teenagers. Winry sighed, before she rose from the blanket she had been sitting on.

"Come on, Al, I bet you want to go swimming now that you have your body back!" she smiled. Alphonse did as the blond girl, and followed her out in the water.

Roy and the rest of the adults that didn't go for a swim, talked about everything that fell into their heads while they waited for the rest of the group to finish swimming. Then, Gracia noticed something.

"Where is Edward?" she asked, looking around on the beach for the little boy, finding only her daughter where he had last been seen. Roy shot up from the place he had been sitting at, and did as the woman. Then, he got his eyes on the boy. He was on his way toward the lake, and automail and water didn't fit so well together. The black-haired man pulled into a run after the boy before anyone else could do anything. He grabbed the boy by his real, lifted him up, and took him back to where the others sat. There he sat Edward down in front of him, and looked angry at the boy.

"What the hell was that about, Fullmetal? I though you knew metal sinks in water!" Roy yelled. The boy's eyes went wet by tears, but he didn't let anyone of them fall.

"Al. . . Winwy," he whispered so low that they had problems hearing the words. Then, Roy got to think of that the two teenagers just had left for going on a swim. The child had only wanted to follow his brother and childhood-friend.

Gracia took the boy into her arms, and hugged him close to her.

"It's okay, Edward. Roy only got scared. He didn't mean to yell at you," she whispered. The boy didn't move at all, just stood there in the woman's arms. Maes looked at his beautiful wife, and smiled softly.

"I think we should go back into the city," he said. No one said anything against it.

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**A/N: Hope you like it^^ Please tell me what you think:) **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**The new FMA manga chapter is finally out^^ _'Leaves to read it'_ **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Chapter 7**

Two cars stopped in the driveway in front of Roy's house, and eight people stepped out. Roy had let Maes and his family stays at his place for their holiday. After all, he had gotten used to having more people around there since Edward, Alphonse and Winry came. And since Roy and Maes most likely went out for a drink, Riza had decided to stay for a while to keep Gracia with company.

As guessed, Roy and Maes left right after they had arrived, leaving the rest of them alone in the house. Elicia went to play with some dolls she had taken with her, while Alphonse, Winry, Edward, Gracia and Riza stayed inside the kitchen where they could play some rounds with cards. Shortly after they began, Edward started to fall asleep. He would have fallen of his chair if Winry hadn't been there to catch him. She smiled softly while she held the small boy in her arms, before she turned to the boy's brother.

"I think we should put him to bed," she said, before she rose from the chair and went upstairs to the bedrooms. Alphonse turned his attention to the game again, while thoughts started to travel around in his mind. Then, he too rose from his chair, and followed his brother and their childhood-friend upstairs. Winry was on her way out of his brother's bedroom when he reached the second floor.

"Winry!" he called out, not too loud or too low. The girl turned toward him, waiting for him to continue.

"What was the real reason you wanted to stay here?" he asked. Winry looked down on the floor, lost in thoughts for a second.

"I. . . Have something to tell your brother when he becomes normal again. Something I want him to hear right after. . ." she whispered. Alphonse smiled.

"You love Brother, don't you?" he said. The girl went flashing red, and the answer stood to read in her face. The boy laughed.

"That's good," he said softly, before he grabbed the girl's arm, dragged her with him downstairs and into the kitchen where the two women sat. Then, they kept the card-game going on for a while.

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The clock was nearly twelve when Gracia decided it was time for them to go to bed. Elicia had gone to bed around nine and Edward before that. Riza was about to say goodbye when they heard some noise from the second floor. A tiny scream rang through the house. Winry's eyes went big, while Alphonse already was on his way upstairs again. They both knew that scream. Edward.

Riza and Gracia followed Winry closely when she ran after the other teenager. They reached the second floor, only to find a shocked Alphonse standing in the door into his brother's room, and a crying Elicia running toward them. The small girl throw herself at her mother, apparently the scream had woke her up and scared her. While Gracia tried to comfort her little daughter, Winry and Riza ran over to Alphonse.

"Brother. . . He's gone!" the boy said with shock in his voice. The two females looked inside the room, and found the blanket on the floor and the window wide open. The oldest of them ran downstairs again, and picked up the phone as fast as she could. After just some seconds, a voice answered in the other end of the line. Winry listened closely to what the female officer said.

"Havoc! I want you to call up Breda, Fuery and Falman and tell them to meet us at Roy's place. Edward's missing. Roy and Maes went out for a drink, so if you happened to know which bar they are at, could you pick them up? Thanks," she hang on, and turned to the four standing in the stair.

"We will find him soon."

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Roy ran through the streets, calling out the name of the small child. He was still in shock from the moment Havoc had showed up at the bar, telling Maes and him that Edward was missing. They had then gone over to Roy's house, where the rest of the gang waited for them. Since then they had searched for the boy, looking all over East City. Winry, Gracia and Elicia waited for them back at Roy's. At the moment, Roy found himself running around along with Riza and Alphonse, the teenager almost crazy from worry for his brother. All of them knew Edward was a magnet to serious trouble.

The boy stopped, graining the attention from the two adults.

"I. . . I think I know where Brother is," he said looking far beyond Roy and Riza. The two of them stared at him like he was going crazy. Maybe the shock of his brother going missing finally had taken its price from the other boy.

"Where, Alphonse?" Roy asked curious.

"The basement where he was turned into a three year old. . ." the boy said, before he ran off in a totally different direction than the one they had been going in. The two officers followed him to an almost abandoned street a little while away from East City HQ. Alphonse stopped outside a house that looked ready to collapse at any time. He went up the small stair, and opened the door. The moment before they were able to go inside, the rest of the gang caught up with them.

"We saw you go this way, and decided it probably was to the best if all of us went together," Jean said as they went inside the house.

"If it comes to battles, it is probably the best if all of us are together. I agree to that," Riza answered.

All of them followed Alphonse into the deepest parts of the house, and down a creepy-looking stairway. At the bottom laid a huge room, lighted up with lamps all around the wall. This time there was no transmutation-circle on the ground, but in the middle of the room, on the cold floor, laid a small person with golden hair, dressed in white and dark-blue night-clothes.

"EDWARD!!"

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**A/N: Hope you like it^^ ****Please tell me what you think. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except from Ieana-.-'**

Chapter 8

When Edward's consciousness started to come back, the first thing he noticed was how quiet it was around him. Then, he heard the waves from an ocean and felt the sand from a beach tickle him down the neck of his clothes.

The beach? Last time he checked, he was in his bedroom at Roy's. Then, he remembered two persons coming into his room, kidnapping him. Could they have brought him here? What had they looked like again? He couldn't remember.

The boy opened his eyes, and stared up at a light-blue sky. When he looked around, he could see trees and mountains surrounding the small beach he was on. Green-blue water washed onto the shore, stopping right under his feet. The boy rose from the ground, and discovered a new thing. He was no longer a three year old! He was back as a teenager!

"I see you have woken up," a female voice said from a place behind him. The teenager turned around, and found a young girl sitting on a rock some steps away from him. The girl was dressed in a brown medieval dress, with blue hair falling down to her shoulders, giving her an abnormal look. Ice-blue eyes showed that she was on the edge of a laugh. She couldn't be more than sixteen-seventeen.

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

"I? I am Ieana, Edward Elric," she said coldly as she jumped down from the stone and went toward him.

"How do you know my name? And what is this place?" the boy looked around again, before he moved his eyes to the girl again.

"I know everything about you, Edward. Mostly from the Truth, but also from what I read in your dreams. About your brother and that girl, the one with blond hair and blue eyes. Your girlfriend, perhaps?"

"She's just my mechanic!" the boy shouted. The girl lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah right," she said not really believing him.

"And for your last question, this is the Final Place," the girl continued, pointing at everything around them.

"The Final Place?"

"Yes, the Final Place. A place you come to when you are about to die, or you have died. Before you reach the Gate."

"Did I. . . Die?" memories of Winry and Alphonse went through his head. Had he left them behind? No! He couldn't have!

The girl laughed a laugh without emotion. First then did he notice her voice hadn't had any emotion before the laugh either.

"No. . . At least not yet. I am giving you a choice. You are still alive, but just as long as it takes you to decide. You can go back, but then you would have to pay a prize, or you could die and stay here with your mother." Edward made a small smile. He could still go back to Alphonse and Winry! But then he had to pay a prize.

"What's the prize of going back?" he asked. The girl grinned evilly, almost like the Truth had done some years earlier.

"The prize of going back. . . Are most of your memories, and that you would be a three year old in mind and body!" Edward really didn't know if this girl was bad or good. Maybe she was like the Truth? Both good and bad. After all, it was always a prize. Equivalent Exchange.

"What are the memories you want to take away?" he couldn't help himself from asking.

"All of your memories from an age older than three, except from the memory of when your mother died and you tried Human Transmutation."

"You mean I would forget Teacher and all of the military-officers?" he asked in shock. The girl jumped back onto the rock, and tipped her head to one side.

"Yes, that is about it. But don't worry; you can still get them back, along with your normal age. How to do that, is however your own thing to figure out. There I won't help you. Ah. . . From your questions I can assume you have chosen life?"

"Of course! There are too many people who would drag me back to life only for the chance to kill me all over again if I died." The girl laughed again, still empty from feelings.

"Fair enough," she said, before she disappeared. The moment the girl left, Edward could feel himself grow smaller and smaller 'till he was about the height of a very small three-year old.

"_Sleep,"_ the girl's voice rang over the beach. The small boy lies down on the beach again, and fell asleep in a minute.

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**A/N: Did anyone notice the 'Wheel of Time'-thingy in here?XD At least I call it a 'Wheel of Time'-thingy because I have never heard that kind of sentences in any other books/stories or reality. . . -.-' Anyway, I hope Ieana wasn't that bad. She's one of the characters in the non-fanfiction-story I'm writing. Hope there wasn't that many grammar-mistakes and that you liked it^^**** Please tell me what you think. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**I really hated the last chapter-.-' Why did I have it in the story if I hated it that much, you may ask. That's simply because some of the last parts of the story wouldn't fit perfectly if I didn't have it in the story. I hope you people still like the story anyway^^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

Chapter 9

The feeling of being warm and safe, safe most of all, made the small boy start to get back from the world of the dreams. Golden orbs opened slowly, stared up on the white roof. The sun shined inside from a window just above the top of the bed, making its way down to his face.

Then, the boy panicked and sat up in the bed, looking around. Where was he? This was not his home in Resembool!

"Mum. . . Dad?" he whispered, not wanting anyone else than his parents to hear him. Oh, that was right. His father had just left their family. But where was his mother? She hadn't left him too, had she?

Flashes of memories started to fill his head. A funeral with his mother's name on the gravestone. Alphonse and him down in the basement of their house. A huge black gate with a person outside of it. Thousands of memories from someone inside the Gate. A monster on the floor that were supposed to be their transmuted mother. And at last, a huge suit of armor. Alphonse.

The three year old looked around him quickly.

"Alphonse!" he called out, his voice tiny and weak. No answer. His brother wasn't inside the room. The boy laid some minutes in total silence, not knowing what he should do.

After a while could he hear someone talk outside the door.

"We had to have him here since it wasn't enough place at the hospital. A doctor came with us home and checked him over. . . Almost died." The boy couldn't make out all of what the person said. After all, he was only three.

The boy lay down on the pillow again, and didn't waste time to fall asleep.

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Winry opened the door softly and peeked in. The boy was still asleep on the bed. Nothing had changed so far. Five days had gone since Alphonse and the officers found Edward in the basement, almost dead. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if they had arrived only some minutes later. . .

Then, she noticed that the boy's blanket didn't cover him anymore. It covered parts of his feet, but nothing more. As far as she knew, only Alphonse had been inside there earlier that day, and he would never take of the boy's blanket.

She went to the bedside quickly, and sat down.

"Ed?" she whispered, calling out to the sleeping boy. Unexpected, the boy's head turned toward her voice, and the boy's eyelid started to open. He blinked some times before he got her face in focus.

"Winwy?" he asked weakly. The girl couldn't help but stare, but she recovered quickly from the shock of seeing her almost killed childhood-friend look and talk to her.

"Yes, Ed," she smiled. Then the boy frowned.

"No. . . Not Winwy. Winwy smallew," he whispered. Winry swallowed. Had he forgotten everything? He had remembered her being this old before he went missing and they found him again.

"Ed, it _is _me, Winry!" she said, wanting nothing more than to get him to understand. The door behind Winry went up before the boy could answer, and Alphonse came inside.

"Winry, I heard you talking to someone and. . . Brother?! You're awake!" the youngest brother smiled brightly at the last part, but the smile disappeared when he saw the small boy's scared look.

"Brother?" he asked. Edward shook his head.

"Only Alphonse calls me Bwothew. You'ew not him," the small boy said. Alphonse stared at his older, yet much smaller, brother. Edward didn't recognize him?

He went up to Winry's side and sat down on the bed in front of his brother.

"Brother. . . Edward," he said softly, looking into the child's golden eyes. The boy stared at him for some seconds, before he throw himself at his younger brother, hugging him.

"I'm sowwy, Al!" he cried out as he buried his head into his brother's stomach. Alphonse smiled, and put his arms around his brother's small body, hugging him back.

"It's okay, Brother," he said. The little boy then pulled away, and turned to Winry. Edward got his small arms around her neck before she even knew what he was going to do.

"I'm sowwy, Winwy!" The girl laid a hand on his head and started to caress the boy's hair, while she put the other around him and held him close to her. The boy hugged her 'till he fell asleep again. Winry then removed his hands, and putted him back on the bed.

"Should we go and tell the others that he has woken up?" Winry asked as she rose from the place she had been sitting on. Alphonse rose too, after pulling the blanket around his brother again.

"Yeah, after all, most of them had been the same way we have been since all of this happened," he answered, leading the way out of the bedroom.

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**A/N: Hope you like it^^ Please tell me what you think. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

Chapter 10

Alphonse and Winry stepped into the living-room shortly after leaving Edward's bedroom. Roy, Riza, Maes og Gracia were too deep into a game with cards to notice that the two teenagers had come into the room. Elicia rose from the place where she had played with her dolls and ran toward them, clinging to Winry's legs.

None of the Hughes' had wanted to go home before Edward woke up again, resulting in that they stayed at the house together with Roy and the children. Riza hadn't wanted to leave either, so Roy had let her stay in one of the guestrooms.

Winry sat down, and picked up the small girl.

"Ed woken up yet?" she asked in a small child-voice. Elicia missed her playmate from the beach, and from what she was told, the boy just slept in his bedroom. She didn't know what had happened that day. The oldest girl smiled.

"Yes, but he fell asleep again. Maybe the two of you could play later?" she said softly. The little girl smiled brightly, before she twisted out of Winry's arms, and ran over to her mother.

"Mum! Ed woke up!" she cried, clinging to Gracia's left arm. The woman stared at her daughter for some seconds, before she saw the two teenagers and turned her gaze to them.

"Is it true? Has Edward woken up?" she asked quietly. Alphonse grinned, and nodded.

"Yes," his smiled fell.

"But he doesn't seem to remember anything. He didn't believe it was us at first. Maybe he lost all of his memories from the age of three?" the boy thought out loud. Now all of the adults had turned their heads toward Winry and him.

"So Edward woke up but don't remember anything?" Maes asked. Winry shook her head.

"We're not sure yet. He didn't recognize us at first, but something Al did, made him believe us. We don't know if he doesn't remember anything or if he remembers parts of things. . ." Silence ruled the room for several minutes. No one knew what to say or do, except from Elicia who were playing with her dolls at the floor again.

The door into the room opened again, and a small golden-haired boy stared at them. Edward hugged his pillow tight to his chest as he looked shyly over them.

Maes grinned, pulled out his camera, and snapped a quick picture of the boy. The small boy looked frighten and took a small step toward the door behind him.

"Al. . . Winwy," he whispered. The small boy's brother went over and picked him up.

"Do you remember anyone of these people, Brother?" the youngest brother asked, pointing at the group around the table. The small boy shook his head and hid away his face into his brother's shoulder.

Alphonse spotted the groups faces, telling him that they really didn't like this at all.

Winry went up to Alphonse side, and the small boy in the teenager-boy's arms stretched his arms out to her. The girl took him, and walked over to the table.

Edward peeked out at them, before he hid again. He didn't like these men. They reminded him of how his father had left them. The women were okay. The man with the camera smiled to him.

"Hi, Ed! I'm Maes Hughes," he said friendly. The boy looked at him again, before he shyly answered:

"Hi." The two women smiled softly to him.

"Hello, Edward. I'm Gracia Hughes," a woman with short light-brown hair said. The boy gave her a small smile.

"Riza Hawkeye," the last woman said. The boy nodded. The last one of the adults rose from his chair.

"Sure you don't remember, shrimp?" he said, knowing that the small boy would be furious.

"WHO AWE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE COULD JUST WALK INTO SOMEONES BWAIN AND FIGUWE OUT THEIW NAMES THAT WAY?!?!" the boy's outburst almost made Winry drop him and got most of the people in the room to stare at him. Maes shot a look over at Alphonse, who understood the silent question and nodded. Edward had always been sensitive about his height.

"His name is Roy Mustang," one of the women, Riza, said. This got her an irritated stare from the man, but there was something in the look that got the boy to stare at them for some seconds.

"And I'm Elicia!" the little girl said as she ran up to them, not understanding why they said their names to the little boy, but still wanted to do the same as her parents. The little girl then went over to her father.

"Dad, can we go outside and play?" she asked. The man smiled and lifted his daughter up.

"Of course, Elicia! Your coming to, right Honey?" he answered and smiled to his wife. Gracia nodded. Elicia grinned, before she turned toward Winry, Edward and Alphonse.

"You too, right?" she asked. Winry and Alphonse looked at each other over the small boy's head.

"Edward can't go outside yet since he has just been sick, but I guess Al and I can," the older girl told the small girl. She flashed them all a smile, and stared to walk toward the door that leaded to Roy's garden. Gracia rose and followed her daughter, her husband following shortly while he pulled Roy along with him. The Flame Alchemist protested, but was totally ignored by his best friend. Winry sat Edward down on the floor, before she and Alphonse followed the group outside. Only Edward and Riza were left in the house. The boy looked at the woman, and found her staring at the door the Roy-guy just had left through. Edward made up his mind, and walked over to the woman, climbed up to sit in the seat beside her.

"Ms. Wiza?" he asked, hoping he wasn't wrong with the title. The woman smiled to him.

"What it is, Edward?" she said softly. The boy swallowed before he continued.

"You love that Woy-guy, don't you?" he asked. After all, the gaze she sent the man was exactly the same his mother had sent his father when they still lived home. The boy had still not understood completely where he was, anyway.

The woman looked shocked by the question, but when she saw the boy's lost looked, she couldn't stop her maternally feelings. Riza put her arms around the small body, and pulled him close to her. The boy struggled to get free, but gave up easily; the woman wasn't going to let him go for a while.

Riza looked down on the boy, and noticed that he had fallen asleep, leaning onto her. She smiled and carried one of her two almost sons upstairs to his room. She laid him on the bed, put his pillow, the one he had been dragging with him downstairs, under his head, and pulled the blanket over the small body.

On her way out of the room, Riza couldn't help but wonder how the small boy had noticed the well-hidden feeling. Then, a small noise made her turn around.

"Mum. . ." the small boy whispered. The woman smiled, before she closed the door and went downstairs again. No one of them remembered that Riza hadn't answered the boy's question.

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**A/N: Hope you like it^^ Please review. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks to all of you who have reviewed or/and adding the story to favorites or/and alerts^^ I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC. **

**From this point, the story will follow the manga-storyline, only a little twisted and not so closely. And not everything would be here, too. Since some of it is impossible with three-year old Edward and human-Alphonse. After all, I have made up a plot, but the plot is kind of impossible to follow if it doesn't involve things from the manga. Please don't hate me for that.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Chapter 11**

It had been about a month, and still they had no clue about how to turn Edward back again. Maes and his family had gone back to Central, while Riza had started to sleep at home again, but she often came over to check on the kids. For some reason she seemed to believe Roy couldn't take care of them that good.

The playground just a little walk away from Roy's house was at the moment taken over by Edward, Alphonse and Winry. The two teenagers sat on the grass as Edward ran around all over the place.

"What are we gonna do? What if he never turns normal again?" Winry asked out of the blue. Alphonse stared up at the sky over them.

"I don't know. I really don't know," he answered absent. Then, the boy rose from the ground.

"Maybe Teacher knows what to do. We could travel over to Dublith and talk to her. But Brother doesn't remember her, so I guess that could be a problem," he said. Winry stood up.

"It wouldn't hurt, would it? If she is such a great alchemist as you're telling me she is, she has to know something!" the girl said, her voice filled with enthusiasm. The boy nodded.

"Then we're going to Dublith! We just need to make the Colonel say we are allowed to!" Winry smiled brightly. This was the best thing they had thought about for weeks. She then turned to the rest of the playground and found the small three years old with her eyes.

"EDWARD! Come on, we're going back to the house!" she shouted. Soon after, the small boy showed up at her side, walking between the two teenagers on the way back to the house.

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Edward poked his head out of the window of the train. He couldn't believe they were gonna travel with it! Maybe they could go back to Resembool for a while. He had started to like being around the officers, but it wasn't _home_. Home was Resembool, with his mother, who he knew was dead, Alphonse, Winry and old Pinako.

"Take good care of each other on the way there, and give us a call when you arrive!" the blond female officer said.

"We shall!" Alphonse promised, waving from the place he had beside Edward. The whole group that was gathered on the platform smiled to them and waved back.

"And don't get yourselves into hospital!" Roy said, being the one with the responsibility for at least two of the children. Alphonse and Winry laughed, while Edward just looked confused. Why would they get themselves into hospital?

"And watch the shrimp!" Jean shouted as the train started to go forward.

"I'M NOT A SHWIMP!" Edward yelled while their friends got smaller and smaller. Soon, they were out of East City, and on their way to Dublith. It was about three stops before they reached the city, leaving them with a lot of free-time on the train.

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It only took some hours before they had reached the second stop on their way to Dublith. Winry was asleep in her seat, while the Elric-brothers sat looking up at the sky over the train.

After a while, Edward got bored and started to look through the pockets on the clothes Riza had bought for him. Before they had left East City, she had given him some sweets for the trip. The thought of the blond woman, made him think of his mother. Had she really died? And had they really tried to bring her back? The strange thing was that in all of those memories, he was older than he was at the moment. Could it all have been a dream? He probably should ask his brother. That thing got him to think again. Why was his _younger_ brother so much taller and older than him? Alphonse was a year younger, not twelve years older.

The small boy turned to his brother.

"Al?" he asked quietly, not wanting to wake Winry up yet. Alphonse turned around the moment he heard the small voice.

"What is it, Brother?"

"Did. . . Did mum weally died? And did we twy to get hew back?" the three year old asked. Alphonse stared in shock at his older brother. Edward had not said anything about remembering that. From what they had understood, all of his memories from the age of three were gone, so why leave those ones? His brother's eyes got Alphonse back to reality.

"Yeah. . . She did. And yes, we did try to get her back. That's why you have automail," he couldn't lie, not to his brother, not even if the truth hurt much more than a small lie.

"Oh. . ." the boy then stared down on his seat. Alphonse looked at him with a pained look. He had really hoped his brother didn't remember that.

Not too short after, the whole train started to shake. Afraid of what that could happen, Alphonse reached over and shock Winry 'till she woke up. She blinked some times, before she noticed the shakes. Then, the train stopped.

"To all passengers, please leave the train immediately. This is not a test, I repeat, this is not a test," a voice said over the calling. The two teenagers could almost feel their eyes grew. Alphonse quickly grabbed all of their stuff, while Winry picked up the still sad Edward. The boy hadn't made one movement since Alphonse had told him the truth.

Some of the other passengers on the train had started to walk to the door, but when these ones didn't open, they panicked. Before anyone could do anything, Alphonse had looked toward the cart behind them. Flames covered the entire thing. Luckily, that one had been empty.

He ran toward the door that leaded outside, and opened it with alchemy. What met them was unexpected. The train had stopped in the middle of a bridge, with only the front cart on the outside of the whole thing. More people started to shout about how they were too young to die, before Winry finally got them to calm down. She too had seen the flames coming toward their cart.

"Everyone, we will have to move to the other carts," she shouted. Some people stared at her for a short while, before they turned around and ran into the cart in front of their own.

Edward had put his small arms around Winry's neck, trying to hide away from all of the panicked people. The girl held him close as they along with Alphonse ran after the group.

Soon, most of the carts were empty, and the passengers of the train were in the last cart, ready to leave the burning train. Winry was about to close the door behind her, the flames had not yet reached the cart they had started from, when her T-shirt got stuck. She tried to pull herself free, but it wasn't that easy when she held a small boy in her arms. After some moments in distress, the girl heard a small clap. Tiny arms reached forward and touched the place the T-shirt was stuck, making it come free. Winry stared at the small boy in her arms. Whatever happened, Edward still had his amazing powers to transmute with only a clap with his hands.

"Winry! Brother! Come on!" Alphonse shouted for the door that leaded outside. The girl shook her shock away, and ran toward the boy, following him out of the train.

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**A/N: Hope you like it^^ Please tell me what you think. **


	12. Chapter 12

**I had a lot of problems with this chapter. It's not easy to write when you have to watch and play with a cat, pack for a holiday, and having to listen to the thunder outside. I never use the computer in that kind of weather. To say it this way, while it was thundering, I had the cat in my lap as I read a very good book. My dad had to take the book away to get me to answer his question and conversations. **

**Anyway, here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

**Chapter 12**

Alphonse leaded them away from the burning train quickly. It seemed like they weren't that far away from the second stop on the way to Dublith. Most of the passengers had gotten to the town already, and waited for a new train to take them to their stops. Winry sat Edward down on the ground, and the boy followed them closely.

When they finally reached the town, the first thing they did was checking if all three of them was okay. Edward was a little scared, but none of them were hurt or anything. Then, Winry remembered what the little boy had done while they were inside the train.

"Alphonse," she whispered into the other teenager's ear. He turned his head half toward her.

"Ed can still do alchemy with only a clap," she told him. Alphonse looked from her to his brother and back again.

"You serious?" he asked. The girl nodded. The little boy walked in front of them, not really caring about their conversation at all.

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When they finally had found a train that ran in the right direction, they hadn't expected the next stop to be the last. All of the passengers had to leave at the stop right before Dublith. There they had to wait for yet another train to take them where they wanted.

Winry looked over the list of times the trains arrived at, but no matter how long she looked, she just couldn't find the right one. The girl then turned to one of the persons beside her, a young girl about her own age, with dark hair and eyes.

"Excuse me, but do you know when the next train to Dublith arrives?" she asked.

"Yeah, it comes in about ten minutes," the other girl answered with a smile.

"Thanks! I'm Winry Rockbell, by the way."

"I'm Paninya." The two girls started to chat, and while they waited for the train, the two of them become friends. Winry introduced her to Edward and Alphonse shortly after.

After a little while, their train arrived. Paninya stood waving to them as they got on the train and found some seats.

"Come and visit Rush Valley sometimes!" she shouted after them.

"Of course!" both Alphonse and Winry yelled back, waving to their hands were about to fall off.

As the train-station started to get smaller, Alphonse quickly got a scared look in his eyes.

"Maybe we should have called Teacher first. . ." he muttered. Winry's eyes grew.

"You mean you didn't call her?" she said shocked. The boy scratched the back of his head nervously. Winry caught the answer easily enough.

"Both you and your brother are idiots some times," the girl said, shaking her head as she looked over at the oldest Elric-brother, who was asleep on the seat he had been given.

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The train finally stopped in Dublith, and the group of three made their way off and out in the streets.

Alphonse leaded the way to a meat shop a little while away from the middle of the town. He went over to the house right behind the shop, and knocked on the door. Edward was standing right next to Winry as he followed his brother's movements.

The door opened, and a huge man with black hair and beard and scary-looking eyes came out. He was dressed in a white T-shirt, black pants, and a white blood-stained apron, and held a bloody knife in his right hand.

The man shot Alphonse one look, before he laid his hand on top of his head and patted his hair.

"Hello, Alphonse," he said. The boy looked shocked for some minutes, before he recovered.

"Hello, Mr. Curtis! Is Teacher home?" the man disappeared inside the house again, and showed up again, this time followed by a woman with black hair in a dread-lock, and dark eyes. She was dressed in a white dress, with toilet-slippers on her feet.

The woman looked over her guests, before she took Alphonse's arms and tossed him onto the ground. Winry could feel Edward hide more behind her legs than he already did.

"What the hell have I been hearing about my stupid apprentices working for the State?" she shouted at the boy on the ground. Alphonse rose quickly, and took some steps backward.

"And where is your brother? Is Edward too afraid to show up?" she continued before she could get an answer out of the boy in front of her.

"Eh. . . Teacher, Brother's right there," the boy said, pointing at the small boy behind Winry.

Izumi Curtis' eyes grow big as she watched the three year old. That couldn't be Edward, one of the two boys she had taught alchemy to.

"Edward?" she asked. The little boy hid even more behind the girl in front of him than he already did.

"Teacher, I think there is something you should hear," Alphonse said. The woman looked at him, and started to walk into the house again, signaling for the group to follow her.

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"So he doesn't remember anything?" Izumi asked after hearing the brothers' story.

"Well, he remembers mum's funeral, and that we tried to transmute her back to life," Alphonse answered, staring into the floor beneath his feet. His brother was outside playing with Mason, Sig's helping-boy in the shop.

The woman looked out of the window and on the little boy that ran around in her garden. She had a little smile on her mouth as she rose from her chair.

"Enough of this talk. Come on, the three of you will help me shop what we need for dinner!"

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"Whewe awe we going?" Edward asked as he followed the woman, Winry and his brother into the big town.

"We are going to the market, Edward," Izumi said. The four of them stopped outside of one of the shops that sold fruits and vegetables.

"How about some of these?" Winry asked, holding up a weird looking fruit.

"Or these," Alphonse said, pointing at some vegetables.

"Edward, what do you think?" Izumi asked the three year old. They waited in silence for an answer. When no one came, the three of them looked down to the place the child had been some minutes before. Edward wasn't there anymore. They looked around on the market-place, before they admitted the one thing they didn't wanted to admit; the boy was missing.

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**A/N: There's not going to be another update before Thursday next week. I'****m going on a holiday^^ **

**If you have any questions about the story, just ask. I would answer as quickly as I can^^ And if any of you notice grammar-errors, please tell me:) Hope you like the story so far^^ Let me know if you do, so that**** I know it is worth updating.**


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm so sorry for letting you wait so long for the next update!**

**First****, I want to thank **_**Zukosfirstgirlfriend**_** for pointing out a spelling-mistake in the last chapter. Sometimes, English and Norwegian are just too alike each other with some words-.-' **

**I also want to answer the reviews I didn't have time to answer before I left and/or posted out this chapter:**

_**Deddosora-**_**: Now I feel guilty for leaving on the holidayXD Hope this chapter become worth the waiting^^**

_**AnimexoverCartoons**_**: Thanks:) Hope this chapter become worth the waiting^^ **

_**FullmetalKeyblade-13**_**: Yeah, isn't he?^^ **

**I would have liked to answer on the way I usual do, but I'm in trouble if my dad's find out I'm still up, so I had to do it this way-.-' **

**And before we go on to the story, I just want to say two things: **

_**One;**_** if you have glasses, never leave your glass-cleaning-thingy in the bag you are going to have with you on the plane. Then you get stopped and the guards have to look through you bag-.-'**

_**Two;**_**the world isn't that big. One of the first things I saw on my holiday was a sign with the texts: Norsk Ukeblad-.-' not the thing you expect to find so far from homeXD **

**Now, to the story!****I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

Chapter 13

"Awe you suwe you know whewe my bwothew is?" Edward looked up at the woman that leaded the way. He had lost track of Alphonse, Winry and the other woman – Izumi – when they had reached the marketplace, and these three new persons had told him to come with them. Had said Alphonse and Winry waited for him somewhere else.

Since he couldn't find them when he looked, he decided to follow the strangers, hoping they didn't trick him.

"Don't worry, you will be back with your brother and your other friend soon," the woman said while she looked down on him. How he hated that people had to look down at him.

The woman's green eyes scanned him deeply. As if she was afraid he had figured something out. But what? She then turned around again, and kept going.

Edward let his gaze wander off to the two other persons. One of them was a short man, dark eyes having the look most dogs had. The other was a tall man, and the way he acted reminded Edward of a goat.

The boy swallowed. They had been nice to him so far, at least no short-jokes. But would they really lead him back to his brother and Winry?

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They leaded him to a scary place called Devil's Nest. Edward really doubted that Alphonse and Winry would be waiting inside a place like this, but before he could run away, the small group took him inside and down to the basement of the place. A man came out of a door in front of them. Sunglasses hid away the man's eyes, made Edward unsure about what he looked at. Then, the man grinned.

"Hello, kid. We have been waiting for you."

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At East HQ, Roy's office was completely turned upside down. The group was being transferred over to Central, had to leave tomorrow. All of them were busy with packing down all the stuff they wanted to take with them. Only the two phones in the room were left alone. Yet.

Roy knew he should call the Elric-brothers, but the boys had not left their teacher's telephone-number, so the man was bond to wait for the brothers to call him, like Alphonse had promised before they left.

But they should have called hours ago. After all, it didn't take that long time from Central to Dublith.

Like Roy, Riza too let her gaze fall on the phone more times than she wanted to admit. She too was worried about the two brothers.

Then, it rang. Roy was the first one to reach it, followed closely by Riza, who picked up the other phone. This one was, after all, linked to the other one.

"East HQ, Colonel Mustang," Roy said.

"_Hello, Colonel, its Alphonse. Sorry we didn't call earlier, Teacher wanted to hear the whole story first, and then she dragged us over to the market,"_ Alphonse voice said. Then, they heard a sigh.

"_The first train started to burn, so we had to take another one. Don't worry, no one was hurt. Has anything happened in East City since we left?"_the boy continued. Roy and Riza stared at each other. Their train had started to burn, and he took it that lightly?

The boy's question hung in the air for a short time before Roy answered him.

"We are being transferred over to Central. So when you are done in Dublith, Central is where the rest of us are. "

"_Okay. We will call when we are on our way back." _

Roy stopped for some seconds. When the kids arrived at Central, they would most likely end up staying at some hotel, right? Even if it only was some hours since they had left, he still missed them. After all, all three of them – he counted in Winry too – had been like his own kids while they had stayed at his house. Without them, it would most likely become a little lonely now that he had gotten used to have them around.

"When you show up at Central, you are welcome to stay at my house again, all three of you." He could hear someone laughing somewhere in the background of the brothers' Teacher's house. It sounded like a girl. Winry, perhaps?

"_Thank you, Mr. Mustang!"_somehow, the girl had snatched the phone from Alphonse. She sounded happy, but there was a hidden emotion within her voice. Fear? Worry? Something was going on in Dublith, and he knew none of them where going to tell anyone of them about it. He looked over at Riza, and saw the same understanding in her eyes.

"Okay. Take care of each other so long, and we will met again when you come to Central," Riza said.

"_Yeah, you too!"_Alphonse answered. Winry was apparently somewhere else. At this, the two adults that stood inside East HQ, blushed.

"_Bye!"_ someone said on the other side of the line.

"Bye!" First when they hang up, the two adults realized that they hadn't heard Edward in the background during the conversation. But then it was too late to call back.

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Alphonse laid the phone down on the table. Now, they could finally go and look for Edward.

Izumi had gotten the boy to call his friends in East City first, so that they wouldn't get too suspicions.

The boy hadn't told them his brother was missing, couldn't make them worry about it.

"Al! Izumi says she thinks she knows where Ed is," Winry said. After she was done on the phone, the girl had gone into the kitchen to talk to Izumi. How she had gotten that information out of his teacher so fast, was something he didn't know. Didn't want to know either.

"Where?" he simply asked, not wanting to waste more time.

"At a place called Devil's Nest. Some people saw a woman and two men take a little golden-haired boy inside there," Izumi said while she came out from the kitchen. Sig followed his wife closely; apparently he was coming with them too.

"When are we leaving?" Alphonse asked.

"Now," the woman answered, heading toward the door.

"Winry, you stay here 'till we get back," the boy said as he hurried out of the door after Izumi and Sig. The girl stared furious at them, before she ran after them.

"No, I am not! I wanna help finding Ed too!" she yelled. Alphonse looked up at his teacher, let the decision become hers.

"She can come," Izumi said slowly. Winry smiled brightly, and ran up to Alphonse's side. Then, the four of them where heading toward the place called Devil's Nest. Toward Edward.

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The small boy stared up at the people over him. Some of them were scary-looking.

"You transmuted your brother's soul into a suit of armor, right?" one of them, obvious the leader, asked. Edward thought about it for a minute. Had he? When he came to think of it, he did remember doing it. But in that memory he seemed older than he was at the moment. Maybe it was the same with that one as the one about his mother?

The boy nodded to the man, earning a big smile.

"Can you do that again?" the man asked. Edward shook his head. He didn't remember how to do it.

The man looked disappointed.

"Why not?"

"Don't wemembew," the golden-haired boy answered. The man looked about to say something, when one of the men that had taken Edward to the place they were at, opened his mouth.

"Hey, Greed. Remember; he hasn't always been a three year old. The rumors says he lost most of his memories when he was turned into a three year old," he said. The leader, Greed, looked from Edward to the other man and back again. He let out an irritated sigh.

"Well, then we would have to keep him here 'till his brother comes to pick him up, and then we can ask him instead."

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**A/N: ****If you have any questions about the story, just ask. I would answer as quickly as I can^^ And I don't mind people telling me about my grammar-mistakes, so if you find someone, please tell me:) Hope you like the story so far^^ Let me know if you do, so that I know it is worth updating.**


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**I said this will follow the manga, and that I would drop some of the things from it. I just want to say, as many of you might have noticed, I dropped the whole Kill-Maes-thingy. He is not going to die in this story! Why? Because he's too cool to die!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

Chapter 14

Izumi walked as fast as she could toward the place the people she had talked to, had seen a small child been taken. Alphonse, Sig and the girl – Winry – followed her closely. She knew that. She also knew that very soon, they were going to be in a fight with kidnappers.

Alphonse was lost in thoughts as they walked, almost ran, toward the place called Devil's Nest.

What would have happened if they had travelled directly to Central instead of stopping in East City on their way back from Resembool all those weeks ago? If they had followed the first plan, maybe his brother wouldn't have been turned into a three year old. . .

The reason for why they had travelled to Resembool at all was because Scar, a State Alchemist killer, had destroyed Edward's automail-arm and they had to go to Winry for a new one.

The boy stopped. They still had Marcoh's note, didn't they? Edward had put it in the suitcase after all.

He then noticed that the others were far in front of him, and ran to catch up again.

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A group of men looked up from whatever they were doing the moment they heard someone coming toward them. The first think they got their eyes on, was a woman followed by two teenagers and a huge man. The group stopped right in front of the men.

"Excuse me, but have any of you seen a three year old boy around here? Golden hair and eyes?" the woman asked. The men looked at each other. They weren't supposed to tell anyone about the kid, that's what their leader had said.

"No, sorry, old Lady," one of them said. Wrong move.

No one got the change to react before the woman threw all of them into the wall behind them, using only her hands. Unfortunately, one of the men didn't really got the message she left, since he spoke up a minute later.

"Fine, the boy you're looking for is downstairs, old Lady."

It didn't take more than a second before the woman slapped her hands and touched the ground. Light filled the room as a huge hand showed up and smashed them into the wall once again.

When Izumi was sure she had done her work perfectly, she turned around to the rest of her group.

"I'm going in. Wait here," she said coldly. Alphonse shook his head.

"I'm coming too, Teacher." The woman looked him over for a minute. She wanted to say no, that it was too dangerous, but she couldn't beat up who knew how many people at the same time _and_ keep Edward safe.

"Fine. Honey, can you wait here and watch them," she nodded toward the men that where looked between the wall and the stone-hand, "so no one can surprise us?" The man nodded.

"Hey, what about me? I'm coming with you two!" Winry yelled. They stared at her.

"Do you even have a weapon?" Izumi asked. The girl grinned, and pulled out her wrench.

"You think this one would work?" she said sweetly.

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Edward sat on the floor inside the basement. The three who had taken him there, sat next to the door, watched so he couldn't go anywhere.

The boy really wanted his brother there, didn't like it when he didn't knew anyone.

The door opened, and the leader came in again. He looked over at the boy, and grinned.

"It seems like your friends missed you, kid," he said calmly as he came over. Edward rose from the floor, and was about to run toward the door, when the man held him back.

"Not so fast, kid. I want something from your brother, and I am keeping you until he tells me what I want to know." The boy figured out he didn't like this man very much. Not at all.

"Hey, Greed, don't be so evil. He's a child after all," the woman said. The boy was almost sure she sounded bored.

Before the man could answered, the door opened again. This time one of the guards that used to stay outside the room, was threw into the wall just over Edward and the leader's heads. Izumi Curtis was furious when she stepped into the room.

"Edward Elric, why the hell didn't you stay with us when we were at the market?!" she screamed. The boy was too afraid to answer, but the fear disappeared when he saw Winry and Alphonse coming inside after the woman.

"You disappeawed," he muttered.

While the scene played out in front of them, the group that used Devil's Nest as a HQ had problem trying to understand what exactly had happened. Why where all the guards unconscious?

"Uh. . . Excuse me, Lady, but who the hell are you?" Greed asked after a while. Izumi stood up in all her height and power, before she pointed a finger at herself and yelled angry:

"I'm a Housewife!"

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Roy looked through some of the paper he had gotten before he left East HQ that day. They had not moved over to Central yet, and still he already got stuff for some of the things they had to take care of when they got there.

He sighed, and put the paper together with the rest of the stuff he was taking with him to Central. The whole house was filled with boxes he had to take with him. This was the last night he would spend in that house, the last night in East City before they left for Central.

The man was going to put his post on the only table that still stood on its place, when an envelope fell onto the floor. He picked it up and opened it. Out came a picture taken at the day on the beach. A picture of the whole group. In the middle stood Roy and Riza, both smiling brightly. On Roy's left side stood Jean, while Heymans stood on Riza's right side. Kain stood next to Jean, and Vato next to Heymans. On Vato's right side stood Maes and Gracia with their arms around each other, while Alphonse and Winry stood next to Kain. On the ground in front of the whole group, sat Elicia and Edward. All of them smiled as big as they could.

Roy smiled before he turned the picture around to find out who had given it to him.

_Know you don't have many pictures, so I thought you might like this one._

_Maes_

The man shook his head. Of course it was from his best friend. He had almost begged an unknown person to take the picture for him.

Roy put the picture down in one of the boxes before he could miss it.

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**A/N: ****If you have any questions about the story or something else, just ask. I would answer as quickly as I can^^ And I don't mind people telling me about my grammar-mistakes, so if you find someone, please tell me:) Hope you like the story so far^^ Let me know if you do, so that I know it is worth updating.**


	15. Chapter 15

**I realize something while rereading the Wheel of Time-series. . . The rings the Aes Sedai gets is quiet similar to the homunculus' ouroboros. . . Anyway, thanks for all the reviews/alerts/favorites^^ **

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**I really don't like this chapter. . . I promise the next one will be better! I hope. . . **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

Chapter 15

Greed and his gang just stared at the woman that had entered their hideout. Was she insane or something?

The woman held out her hand.

"Give me the boy," she said coldly.

"First you will have to answer some of my questions," the man grinned. The woman crossed her arms, and the boy behind her took a step closer.

"What?" the boy said.

"I wanna know how you link fast your soul to something else," the man said.

"Sorry, the only one who knows is Brother, and he doesn't remember," Alphonse answered. He turned toward Izumi, and found her staring strangely at something on the man's hand. The boy looked over at it. It was some sort of a symbol, a serpent eating it's on tail. The symbol of homunculus, an Ouroboros.

But they weren't supposed to exist!

"You're. . . a homunculus?" Alphonse asked, not really believing what he saw. The man grinned again.

"That's correct. I'm Greed. . ." Longer did they not get before loud noises could be heard all over the place. Someone was trying to break inside the place. The homunculus shouted something to his allies. They ran up to him, one of them, the only female in the group, grabbed Edward by the arm, and ran away through a hole in the wall one of them made by using his hammer. Leaving only Greed behind with the three that had come to rescue the little boy.

"Alphonse! Winry! Get Edward!" Izumi shouted, before she got herself ready to fight the homunculus. The two teenagers nodded, before they followed after Greed's allies through the hole. Behind them could they hear the fight between Izumi and Greed start.

It didn't take too long before they caught up with Alphonse's brother. Once the boy got his eyes on them, he struggled to get free from the grip the woman held him in. before she could get a better hold on him, the boy had broken free and ran to his friends. Winry picked him up as soon as he came close enough, and held him close. Alphonse smiled to them, before he turned toward the enemy again.

"Winry, take Brother back to Teacher. I'll catch up later," he said, waving them away. The girl nodded, and started to run back the way they had gotten.

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Izumi used all her powers to fight of the man in front of her. For some reason, her attacks didn't seem to work. The homunculus grinned as he put on a hard shield over his body.

"You can't kill me, girl. I'm the Ultimate Shield," he said, and tossed a punch toward her. Izumi got away just in time, and got ready for yet another attack in the moment the door opened for the sixth time that day.

A group of soldiers from the military came in, all of them ready to fire toward the man. Greed sighed, before he ran away the battle completely to follow his allies. He didn't have time to fight them off at the moment.

Izumi was about to follow him, when some of the soldiers held her back, busy checking her over for injuries. She didn't get away before the man was long gone.

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Alphonse stood ready to fight off the woman that had held his brother. Her allies lay unconscious on the ground around them. Knocked out by the teenager-boy.

Before they got to start, the sound of somebody coming close to them could be heard all around them. Greed showed up shortly after, looking everything but pleased.

"I see the kid got away," he said, after looking them over. Alphonse only stared coldly at him. The man had kidnapped his brother after all.

Then, the man jumped backward in the moment a sword appeared in the air between him and the two others. The sword then did a swing, and went right through the woman. At the moment she fell to the floor, blood flowing out of her body, a hundred of pictures ran through Alphonse head. Picture of some sort of a Gate, and thing it held as a secret.

Everything went black.

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Riza walked through the streets of Central. She had been out doing some food-shopping for the night and was on her way back to her apartment. It had been two days now since they had arrived the city.

A sound behind her made the woman stop.

"Hey, lady. . . It's **dangerous** to be out alone this late at night. How about I walk you home?" a voice said behind her.

"Thanks for the advice, but I'm fine," Riza answered, not caring about turning around.

"No need to be coy, lady. There's all sort of dangerous characters in these parts. . . LIKE BARRY THE CHOPPER!" Riza turned around just in time to see a man hidden under a cloak attacking. Without thinking she pulled her hidden gun out from the things she had bought and aimed at the man, before she pulled the trigger. The sound of bullets against metal showed that he was wearing a suit of armor, just as Riza had expected when she started to fire at him.

"What the. . .? What the hell are you. . . Doing!?" the man yelled as she made him fall onto his back.

"A scary guy like me attacks you in the middle of the night and you don't even flinch? That's just wrong! Fine I bet this will make you scream!" the man shouted, and pulled up the head of the armor, showing that it was empty inside. Riza's eyes got big for a second, before she pulled the trigger once more. Even as a suit of armor, she could see the man was shocked.

"D. . . Damn it, lady! I'm a frickin' empty suit of armor! Why aren't you afraid?"

"Because I knew somebody who used to be like that," Riza answered, thinking about who Alphonse had been just some months ago.

"Like me. . . ? You mean there are others like me out there?"

"Who are you?" The man started to laugh.

"I like strong women."

"Don't change the subject!"

"I think I'm in **love**!"

". . . Huh?"

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Roy was a little afraid that something had happened when he got the phone-call from Riza, telling him to meet her and somebody else near a park in the middle of the city.

But he hadn't expected her to be with a guy in a suit of armor.

"I'm really sorry to bother you, Colonel," the woman in front of him said. The man stared at them in some sort of a shock.

"Hey, toots, who's the chump?" the unknown man asked, and did a really wrong move. He grabbed Riza. Around the waist. Right in front of Roy.

"Quiet, you!" Riza yelled at the suit of armor. Roy, on the other hand, pulled his glovers on and stood ready to make a toast out of the suit of armor.

"Stand aside, Lieutenant, there's going to be a **fire** tonight!" he said furious, but what Riza did next stopped him.

"Please calm yourself, Colonel! This is Barry the Chopper, a convicted criminal who was supposedly executed!" she yelled.

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**A/N: The last part of the story, the scene with Roy and Riza, is completely from the manga. I just used it because it becomes important later on. Beside, my friend would kill me if I let it out-.-' **

**If you have any questions about the story, just ask. I would answer as quickly as I can^^ And**** I don't mind people telling me about my grammar-mistakes, so if you find someone, please tell me:) Hope you like the story so far^^ Let me know if you do, so that I know it is worth updating.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I hope this chapter makes up for the horrible one I put out yesterday^^ **

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 16**

Once again the three children from Resembool sat on a train. Even if two of them where in their teens, they were still children.

Edward was asleep in Winry's lap, struggling close to her for more warm than the jacket they had laid over him as a blanket could donate.

Winry petted his hair while she smiled to herself, thinking of days far in their past.

Alphonse, on the other hand, had his mind on the week they had spent in Dublith, on the day after the kidnapping. . .

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_The fifteen year old boy sat on the small stair outside the house where his teacher lived. For some reason, he couldn't get his mind off the last thing he had seen the day before. It scared him, who short ones life could end. One thing happened and you could drop dead on the floor. Just like that. Nothing more, nothing left. Except from other people's memories of you. _

_He started to shake. It freaked him out. _

_The woman had kidnapped his brother, but she didn't deserve to die. And he didn't even know who had killed her, hadn't seen the attacker. _

_Most likely the leader, the homunculus, had died too. Killed by the same enemy. _

_The boy stared at his hands. For some reason, seeing the woman being killed had lead him to get his memories of the Gate back. Could he do as his brother now?_

_To test it out, he slapped his hands and touched the ground next to his feet. _

_Blue light filled the small front-yard, and out of the ground raised a beautiful flower. He was unsure about the flowers name, just made it out of memory. _

_So it was the Gate that gave an alchemist the ability to transmute without a circle? _

"_Alphonse?" a voice said over him. The boy looked up, and found himself looking into the eyes of his teacher. Before he could do anything, she sat down beside him. _

"_So you got your memories of the Gate back?" she asked out of the blue. The boy nodded, unable to answer her. _

_They sat in silence a while, before Izumi broke it. _

"_How do you plan on getting Edward back to normal?"_

"_The Philosopher's Stone. It is not bond to Equivalent Exchange, and we was seeking it before all of this happened. Besides, we got a lead to how to find it." Winry and he had agreed on that it was the best thing they could look for, but yet they had to tell the group in the military. _

_Izumi froze on hearing the name, before she turned toward her apprentice. _

"_Don't. The Philosopher's Stone won't do you any good," she said coldly. The boy turned his head toward her. _

"_Why not?" he asked, before he waited for the woman to continue. The woman stared out in the air in front of them. _

"_Before I tried Human Transmutation on my child, I too looked for the one thing that I thought would be able to help me. But what I found out stopped me from looking for it. Alphonse, do you know how it is made?" this time she looked at him again. Alphonse shook his head. No, they didn't know how it was made, but they knew the recipe was somewhere inside Central Library, the place they would travel to after they were done in Dublith. _

_Izumi looked angry before she told him the rest of her little secret. _

"_The Philosopher's Stone is made by sacrificing human lives."_

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Alphonse let his gaze wander along the lake the train passed. He had told Winry what Izumi had told him shortly after the conversation was over. They weren't looking for it anymore; the way to make it was too much. Hopefully Roy, Riza and the others had found another way.

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Finally the train started to slow down. They had decide to use the day in Rush Valley, to visit Paninya like they had promised that day the train had burned.

Edward walked proud between Winry and Alphonse. For once he had decided to not walk hand-in-hand with Winry, but on his own.

The girl was too busy looking at everything that had with automail to do, always asking if they could stop so she could have a look inside the stores, to notice anything around her.

Edward was far gone into thoughts when he noticed his brother had stopped.

It was known by almost all of Alphonse's friends that he had a habit of picking up stray cats, so of course this was the first thing that went through Winry and Edward's heads as they found their friend with his back against them, facing something inside a small side-gate.

"What is it, Al? Anothew stway kitty?" Edward asked with his small child-voice. His brother turned his head toward them.

"You could say that," he answered and held up something that looked like an unconscious person. Winry and Edward's mouth dropped to the ground.

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It didn't take long before the person woke up again. Apparently he – the person was a boy, or a young man - had fainted because of hunger. So, after around one hundred plates of food in the nearest restaurant, he was up and well again.

"Thank you so much for the food! I'm Ling Yao, by the way!" the boy said, laughing and smiling. Alphonse and Winry looked at each other over the table. Did the boy expect them to pay for him?

"I'm Winry Rockbell, this is my friends Edward and Alphonse Elric," Winry said, pointing at the boys as she said their name. The oldest, yet smallest, of the boys sat in the middle of his brother and childhood-friend and played with a small ball they had bought in Dublith, ignoring their talk.

"Ling Yao. . . Isn't that a Xing-name?" Alphonse asked. Ling grinned.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am from Xing." Alphonse could feel his mouth dropping, and he knew Winry's did too without looking at her. They knew the boy's clothes weren't from Amestris, but still.

"Why are you here? In Amestris, I mean," Winry asked.

"To research alchemy. I'm looking for something."

"Can you tell us what you are looking for?" Alphonse couldn't help but feel curious about what a person from Xing was doing in Amestris looking for something that had to do with alchemy.

The boy grinned again, and for a moment he reminded them of the way Greed had looked when he had asked them how to bind a soul to something else.

"The Philosopher's Stone," he answered. Winry froze, while Alphonse stared at the boy. Even Edward lifted his head up from what he was doing.

The three of them rose from their chairs.

"I'm sorry, we can't help you," Winry said coldly. The boy continued to grin, while two more weird-dressed persons showed up.

"I think the three of you know more than you let to know," he said while his companions – at least Winry guessed they were his companions – came closer.

At that point, Paninya decided it was time to show up.

"Hi, Winry, Al, Ed. What's going on here?" she said as she jumped down beside her a-little-over-a-week-known-friends.

"Hello, Paninya," Edward said, looking up at the girl.

"Hi! We're only leaving this restaurant," Alphonse said, smiling to their friend.

"Uh. . . Are you heading to Central today?" the newcomer asked, remembering that they had said they would drop by the day they were going to Central.

"Yeah, our friends are waiting for us to come back today," Winry answered, smiling.

"Then you should hurry up, the last train to Central leaves in five minutes." Alphonse formed an O with his mouth. Had they really used up that much time?

"Sorry, Paninya, we have to leave! We will drop by some other time for a chat, okay? Bye!" the two teenagers shouted as they pulled the three year old with them toward the station.

"Bye!"

"Hey! Wait up! If you're going to Central, we are coming too!" the Xing-people shouted and ran after them, forgetting all about the bill on the restaurant, which earned an angry restaurant-owner to come after them.

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**A/N: ****If you have any questions about the story, just ask. I would answer as quickly as I can^^ And I don't mind people telling me about my grammar-mistakes, so if you find someone, please tell me:) Hope you like the story so far^^ Let me know if you do, so that I know it is worth updating.**


	17. Chapter 17

**I have started a new FMA-fic. It is called Driven by Dreams, and if you like this one, you may like that one. . . I thinkXD Just thought I should let you know^^ Uh, well, onto the next chapter of Child Transmutation! **

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

Chapter 17

The landscape shifted as they got closer to Central. Fields changed into houses closer to each other.

During the traveling from Rush Valley to Central, Edward, Winry and Alphonse had learned three things. One; Ling was fifteen, even if he looked a lot older. Two; one of his companions, or bodyguards, didn't like it when her boss was insulted. And three; Ling's bodyguards names were Foo, and old man, and Ran Fan, the girl who didn't like it if somebody was rude to Ling.

Their new friends had also done one big mistake; calling Edward short. The little boy had screamed for about ten minutes that he wasn't short before he fell asleep on the floor. Probably because of exhaustion.

All in all, it had been a very interesting trip.

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A car stopped outside an old building deep inside Central. Jean didn't waste much time before he headed inside the building.

He wasn't there because he wanted to; he was there because he had to deliver something. If he could choose where he wanted to be for the moment, it was where he was going after this.

The man stopped outside one of the doors longest inside the corridor.

"Hey, Falman. It's me, Havoc," he said, knocking on the door. It opened just a second later, and Vato Falman showed up. Why he was there, the man himself couldn't understand. Why did he have to babysit the murderer the Colonel had captured?

The answer was easy to think up; Barry said he came from laboratory 5, a laboratory no longer in use by the military, a laboratory that collapsed just some weeks ago. So why had he been there? And why did the military make such a big deal out of the whole thing if the laboratory hadn't been used for years? Barry said he had been there to guard something, and this something had to be something the military didn't want anyone else to know about.

So, ever since they figured this out, they had tried to find out exactly what it was that the military hid away.

"Please tell me there is any good news," Vato said. Good news as he wanted, where about when he could leave this place. Jean looked over at him.

"Good news. . . I have one of them," he grinned. Both Barry and Vato looked at him. Then, Jean smiled like an idiot.

"I have a new girlfriend!" he said happy.

"She's such a real doll! Soon as I go to Central, she made me feel right at home! Man, such a sweetie!" and Jean was lost in his talk about how wonderful his new girlfriend was.

"Hey, do ya think she'd be fun to cut up? Huh? Do ya?" Barry said, already excited only by the thought. Vato, on the other hand, went to find somewhere he could bang his head into a wall where he hadn't already done that.

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Jean walked toward the café where he was supposed to meet his girlfriend for a date. It had been ten minutes since he had left Vato and Barry, and on the way he had only had time to buy some flowers.

The man stopped and looked for his date. He smiled once he found her in the crowd surrounding the café.

"Hey, Solaris!" he called out, and waved. The woman turned around to face him. Long, dark hair danced around her head, while violet eyes locked themselves at him.

"Hello, Jean, I have been waiting for you," she said smiling.

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"It's good to finally be here in Central!" Winry couldn't help but smile as they walked away from the station.

"Maybe we can go and visit the Hughes-family before we go up to Central HQ," she said. Alphonse nodded.

"Yeah, it's been a while since we last saw them, don't you think?" Edward got up next to Winry, and tugged at her skirt.

"Winwy? Do you think we can go and buy some ice-cweam?" the little three years old asked. The girl smiled again, before she looked over at Alphonse.

"You will have to ask your brother about that," she said, grinning evilly to her childhood-friend. The little boy turned around and looked up at his brother.

"Al?" he asked, his eyes growing 'till they were big and innocent-looking. Alphonse had a hard time trying to find out a nice way to say no, but failed totally.

"Okay, but it would have to wait 'till after we have talked with the Colonel," he said, sighing. The little smiled brightly, and gave his brother's legs – since he didn't reach any higher up - a hug.

Then, Ran Fan and Foo caught up with them.

"Have you seen the master?" they asked in the mouth of each other. Winry and Alphonse stared. To tell the truth, they hadn't seen Ling since they had gotten off the train. They had thought he had been with his bodyguards.

"You sure he isn't with you?" Alphonse asked. Ran Fan and Foo fall to the grown kneeling in the dust.

"He's missing. . . Again," they muttered. Winry raised an eyebrow, weren't they his _bodyguards_? Shouldn't they know where he was _all_the time? Alphonse just shook his head, before he dragged his brother and their childhood-friend out in the streets. The Xing-girl and the man had enough problems as it was. It was probably best to leave them to their job.

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**A/N: ****If you have any questions about the story, just ask. I would answer as quickly as I can^^ And I don't mind people telling me about my grammar-mistakes, so if you find someone, feel free to tell me:) Hope you like the story so far^^ Let me know if you do, so that I know it is worth updating. **

**Maybe I should stop update it every day. . . And just do it every second day instead. . . Hmmmm. . . **


	18. Chapter 18

**I think I will keep updating every day^^ My pride would never let me stop doing that as long as the story still is ****uncompletedXD **

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 18**

Once they had gotten a little into Central, Alphonse and Winry had bought an ice-cream for Edward, like he had asked about a little earlier.

They had started to get closer to Central HQ, when they saw two familiar persons on one of the cafés they walked past.

"Well, it seems like Mr. Mustang and Ms. Hawkeye are having a funny time," Winry smiled as they changed direction toward their two friends. Riza was the first one to notice them. She raised a hand and waved them closer. Roy turned around to see who she was waving to, and smiled friendly when he saw who it was.

"I see you decided to show up soon enough," the man said as the children got close enough. Alphonse and Winry grinned, while Edward ran over to Riza's side.

"Ms. Wiza, you fowgot to answew my question befowe we left," he said with a sweet smile up to the woman. Her eyes widen. He still remembered that even after more than a month? Then she saw the look her friends sent her, and blushed.

"I can answer you later, okay, Edward?" she whispered to the little boy. He looked innocently up at her, before he nodded.

"Okay!" he said, smiling brightly.

"What's that about, Riza?" the man asked as Winry and Alphonse sat down around the table. Edward had stood beside Riza until she picked him up and placed him on her lap.

The woman looked down at the little boy before she answered.

"Edward just gave me a question some time ago. I just forgot to answer and he remembered after all that time. Nothing to worry about," the woman answered. The three others exchanged a look. Probably the woman and the child had talked about something they – or at least Riza – didn't want anyone else to find out about.

"So, what are you going to do for the rest of the day? Riza and I are going back to HQ soon, and I don't really think that is the best place you can take Edward to at the moment. The higher ups don't know about the whole Fullmetal-turning-into-a-three-year-old-thingy," Roy said, while he let his gaze travel over the three children.

"Well, we were thinking about visiting Mrs. Hughes and Elicia, so I think we're heading over there. Mr. Hughes gave us his address last time we met," Winry answered before any of the boys got a chance. Roy nodded.

"Hughes is home today, it's his free-day. The house is easy to find. After you are done there, you can come to this address," Roy gave Alphonse a piece of paper with a street-name and house number, "That is, if you need a place to stay. . ." The two oldest of the children smiled to each other. It would be nice to stay at the Colonel's house again. After all, they had had a lot of fun the last time.

Riza put Edward down on the ground again, and rose from her chair.

"Colonel, we have to get back to HQ," she said with a smile. The man sighed, before he did as the woman. The two of them said goodbye to the kids, before they went back to work.

Winry grabbed Edward's hand, and rose from her chair as well.

"Let's go and find the Hughes-family's home!" she said happy, before she dragged her two friends with her.

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Like Roy said, the house weren't hard to find, and soon the three of them were standing outside it.

Winry knocked on the door and took a step back. It didn't take much time before they could hear someone coming running toward it. The door opened, and little Elicia smiled up 'till them.

"Mum! Edward, Alphonse and Winry are at the door!" she shouted into the house. More steps came toward them, and Maes and Gracia showed up.

"Oh, what a surprise! Don't stand there, come in," Gracia said while she moved to give the children more space to come in on.

"So, done in Dublith already?" Maes asked with his usual fatherly smile.

"Yeah, it didn't take as long as we thought," Alphonse answered.

Elicia took a hold of Edward's arm.

"Come on, Edo! Let's go and play something!" the girl said as she dragged him with her out of the room. The boy couldn't do much to stop her, and soon they were out of sight.

Gracia started to walk into the living-room, and waved for the two teenagers to come with her.

"I have an apple-pie in the oven, so if you have time, you are welcome to stay for tea, coffee and cake," the woman said as she smiled and went into the kitchen. Maes sat down in one of the chairs and nodded for the teenagers to take to couch.

"I hear you are staying with Roy for the time you are here," he said smiling. The two children looked at each other, before they nodded.

"That's great! Now that he has fixed the children-problem, he only needs a wife! By the way, have you seen the newest pictures of Elicia?" and the man dragged out his precious pictures and began his normal talk about how sweet and charming his daughter is.

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Roy watched the stars outside of the window when he heard someone coming down the stairs. By his guess, it was one of the children. After all, it was nobody else in the house.

The three of them had almost been asleep on the couch when he came home from work, so it didn't take much before they went to bed.

"Mistew Woy?" a small voice said beside him. The Colonel looked down and found two big, innocent golden eyes looking up at him.

"What is it, Edward? Can't sleep?" he asked as softly as he could. The boy shook his head, before he opened his mouth again.

"You love Miss Wiza, don't you?" the boy asked. Roy couldn't help but let his mouth drop to the floor. Where the hell did that came from?!

"I think it's time for bed, Edward," the man said as he started to guide the boy up the stairs again.

"I think she likes you too," the boy muttered. Roy stopped. Had he that kind of feelings for Riza? He knew he liked her better than a friend, better than most of the girls he had dated. Maybe he could ask her out once.

Once he got the boy in bed, he let his mind travel toward Riza again. Toward the thoughts about having a family on his own. Of course, the usual group in the military was a part of his family, but it would be nice with his own.

Roy were about to close the door behind him as he left the child's bedroom, when he heard a voice behind him.

"Night, dad." He smiled, and his mind went to a time far away when the same boy had said the same word to the same person.

"Night, son."

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**A/N: I have a feeling Edward's playing matchmaker between his Colonel and the First Lieutenant. The last part of the chapter was inspired by the novel 'The Abducted Alchemist'^^**

**Reviews makes the updates show up faster^^ **


	19. Chapter 19

**Very much of this chapter is taken from the manga! Just to warn you guys^^And thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter! Those really made me write faster, even if I don't update fasterXD **

**The internet had gone on a short holiday when I got done with the chapter . **

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 19**

'_**The worst sin a general can commit, worse than blundering, worse than losing, worse than anything, is to desert the men who depend on him.'**_**  
-Faile (Zarine) Bashere (The Wheel of Time)**

When Winry came down the stairs the next morning, she wasn't surprised to find Edward lying asleep on the couch. It had after all happened often enough both last time they stayed at Roy's and in Dublith.

She walked over to the sleeping boy and sat down beside him.

"Edward," she whispered quietly into his ear. The boy started to wake up as he heard her voice. Like always in these situations.

"Winwy!" he said in shock as he opened his eyes and found two blue ones stare down at him. The girl smiled to him.

"Hey there, Edward. What are you doing sleeping down here and not in your bed?" she knew the answer, but she had to ask anyway.

The boy stared at the ground.

"Mistew Woy said I could sleep down hewe if I didn't get to sleep in my own woom. I woke up a little befowe he left fow wowk," the little boy said.

"Did you wake up from a nightmare?"

"No," she knew it was a lie, but she didn't point it out. Always when he woke up that early it was from a nightmare.

"Ed, what do you say to that we go and visit the Hughes-family again today?" Winry asked. The boy thought it over for some seconds, before he nodded.

"Okay!"

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"Hey, Elizabeth! How are you?" Roy smiled brightly as he talked into the phone. The sun shined inside from the window behind him, making the room swim in light.

"_Oh, hello, Roy. Thanks for calling. Are you still at work?" _the voice in the other end answered. From the look in the face of the officers under him, Roy could see that the phone-call irritated them.

"Uh-huh, but I really wanted to hear your voice," he continued the talk.

"_Oh, aren't you slick. But if you slack off too much, won't that scary assistant of yours be mad at you?"_ Riza's face showed up behind his eyes.

"Don't worry. She's off today," the plain and simple truth, "I got so much work done this week, I told her to take a day off."

"That's nice of you. But I'm going to be stuck at the shop for a while so I don't think I would be going home any time soon," the look the other officers sent him told him that they thought that with Riza gone from the office, he would use the chance to call up a woman or two. The man grinned inside himself. They only should have known.

"I haven't had a moment's rest since I came to Central. . . So I have been thinking about taking some time off."

"_Oh? Are you going somewhere?" _

"Lately, I have been itching to go **fishing**. Would you like to come?"

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"Okay, I'll drop by your shop tomorrow." Roy had been sitting on the phone for hours now, pissing off most of the people in the room.

"Do you want me to bring anything?"

"_Oh my, thank you! Can you bring something for Kate too? That girl's been working so hard. . . Oh, excuse me for a moment, Roy. Kate! We have a customer."_

"_Yes, ma'am."_ This voice was new. Well, he had heard it before, but it was new for the day.

"_Could you call Jacqueline for me?"_ this was the first one, Elizabeth.

"_Jacqueline. You have a __**customer**__."_

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Earlier that day, Ling and Ran Fan had showed up at the place where Vato and Barry were staying. Foo had travelled home to Xing, leaving the two teenagers alone in Central.

Why they had showed up at that place, nobody knew.

Ling had left shortly after to look for Edward, Alphonse and Winry, leaving Ran Fan alone with Vato and Barry.

It was what Ran Fan and Barry felt that got them alerted. Something was getting close onto them.

"What's wrong?" Vato asked, after noticing his companions' reaction.

"Well. . . I got a chill," Barry answered, looking around.

"**How**? You don't even have a physical body. . . What's that smell?" Vato turned his head toward the window, and found something big staring at them. When the thing let out a loud sound, he got panic and pulled out his gun, ready to fire. But before the bullet left the barrel, Barry had stopped the newcomer's attack with his knife, and pressed Vato's gun down.

"Barry?!"

"Relax, Falman. Don't **kill this guy**!" with that, Barry and the newcomer started to fight. Vato left the room at the first chance, only to find Ran Fan already on the outside.

"He's not the only intruder," the girl said, before she disappeared out the door, leaving the man and the armor to fight the thing alone.

"HEY!" the man called out after the girl as the door closed, only to have it opening a short while after. A man dressed in black with a gun pointed at the intruder came in, fast and ready to fight. As the man fired against the intruder, Vato's nose caught up the smell of tobacco. Only one person he knew smoked that much to leave a constant smell everywhere.

"Hey. Second Lieutenant Havoc?" he asked. The man froze, before he got angry.

"What do you think this mask is for, a fashion statement? Jeez, this is why I hate working with amateurs who haven't seen real combat!" he shouted as he fired at the attacker.

"Oh! Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!" Vato answered, saluting.

"Sorry we had to keep you in the dark. We couldn't risk them finding out that we were setting a trap."

"Where have you been hiding out?!"

"Next door! We moved in right after the Colonel was sure somebody was going to show up to collect Barry. After all, he ran away from laboratory 5." The fighting got more and more huge, and in the end, all of them were thrown out in the street. Luckily the place they had picked where a place most people avoided.

The attacker was about to throw an unseen attack at Jean when a shot was fired. Vato stared around to find the place the shot was fired from.

"Relax. We are safe out here. We have the hawk's eyes watching over us."

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Riza kept a close eye on her friends once they got out of the building, and when the enemy was about to attack unseen, she fired her gun before anyone else could do anything.

"_I heard a loud noise. What happened?"_ the Colonel's voice asked over the phone she got linked to her microphone.

"Nothing to worry about. The customer was being mean to Jacqueline so I had to **slap** him," she answered calmly.

"_You're as strict as ever, Elizabeth.__ Your shop seems busy. Should I hang up?"_

"That's all right. You seems busy too."

"_Not really. I can take it easy thanks to my capable subordinate."_Riza stopped. Something told her to turn around. And that fast.

"Uh-oh. I'll have to call you back. One of my regulars is here." She turned around before her Colonel got the chance to answer, and fired a shot at the person – a huge man dressed in black clothes with red stripes on - behind her. The shot hit the man in the middle of his forehead, but when the woman though he was down, the man rose again. Riza was frozen in shock.

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"What's wrong? Elizabeth! Hey! Pick up!" Roy got scared the moment the woman didn't answer. She always did if things were okay. The fear got the better out of him, and soon he sat in a car heading toward the place where the fight was going on.

On the way, Edward's face showed up before his eyes.

_"You love Miss Wiza, don't you?"_ the tiny child-voice asked once again. The words got stuck in his head and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get them out.

"Please let me make it in time!"

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**A/N:**** If you switch the word General with Colonel in the quote at the beginning, I think it suites Roy very well^^ Mostly since he would never desert his men. **

**And again, I hope you like the chapter, even if I took a lot from the manga. Please don't hate me for it!**

**Reviews make the chapters show up faster^^ **

**And they stop the chapters from appearing in Norwegian instead of EnglishXD**


	20. Chapter 20

**One of my friends told me she would kill me if I turned this chapter into Norwegian, so I decided not to do that. . .**

**There's something weird in this chapter, and I can't point it out-.-' I don't like that.**

**Anyway, I have put up a poll about this story on my profile. It has to do with the ending of the whole story. That chapter is still far into the future, but I like to have the ending completely planed out.**

**I ****hope it showed up at my profile, at least -.-' **

***Leaves to check if the poll is there* **

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 20**

Winry, Alphonse and Edward were on their way back to Roy's house after a visit to the Hughes-family, when they saw a car driving fast in their direction. It passed without driving anyone of them down, mostly because the three children jumped out of the road just in time. The two oldest couldn't help but stare after it. Who would drive that fast without caring about the people walking on the walkway?

Edward, on the other hand, had seen perfectly well who the driver was.

He tugged Winry's skirt to get her attention. When the girl looked down, the little boy opened his mouth.

"Winwy? Wasn't that Mistew Woy?" the little boy asked. Winry's eyes grew, and she looked up at Alphonse. The other boy was almost as shocked as her. What could make Roy drive that fast and not noticing them?

Before anyone knew what was going on, Ling stood in front of them.

"Hey!" he greeted them.

"Hello," the oldest ones of them answered. Edward was too busy staring in the direction the car had disappeared in to even noticing the newcomer.

"I have spent the whole day looking for you three," the Xing-boy said, a little disappointed to find them standing in the middle of a street.

"Why?" Alphonse asked. Why would he be looking for them? They were friends and all, but shouldn't he be looking for Ran Fan and Foo instead. After all, they used to follow the boy anywhere. Since they weren't with him this time, Alphonse and Winry thought they might have lost track of Ling again.

The only answer they got was a huge grin.

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"So Mister Mustang and the others are setting a trap for the people that worked at the place Barry comes from?" Winry asked. Ling nodded. It had taken him about five minutes to explain the whole thing for the two teenagers – nobody counted Edward in, after all, his body and mind was still only three.

"Are you ready to fight?" the Xing-boy asked.

"Winry, take Edward and go back to the Colonel's house. I will go and help the others," Alphonse answered. The way he saw it, it was a payback to the Colonel for letting them stay at his house.

"Why are you going into something dangerous again?" the girl complained.

"Please, Winry. It's a way for us to say 'thank you' to the Colonel for letting us stay at his place," the fifteen-year old answered. The girl let out an irritated sigh, before she nodded.

"Okay, I will go back to the house. Come on, Edward," she said, and waited for the three-year old to come with her.

It didn't happen. The boy didn't come up to her.

"Edward?" she called out, looking around for the boy. Alphonse frowned, and looked around for his brother.

When they couldn't find him, they panicked.

"How many times are we supposed to lose him?!" Winry said angry.

"Brother! Why can't you just stay in one place?!" Alphonse called out.

Ling looked in the direction the car had driven in about ten minutes earlier, just in time to see a golden boy disappear around one of the corners in the far distance.

"I think he ran that way, I think," he said, pointing toward the place he had seen the golden-haired boy.

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The moment his brother, Winry and the boy they had met on the train some days ago – Ling – started to talk, Edward decided to follow the car.

Something in his three-year old mind told him that his friends were in danger.

So, like all small children, he ran head first into trouble, his curiosity getting the better of him.

After just a short among of time, he had lost track of the car. The boy stopped to look around, but couldn't find it. Instead, he saw a huge suit of armor chasing something into a building just a street away. And weirdly enough, after the man come the man his brother, Winry and he stayed with, the man's almost girlfriend, his brother, and a bunch of other people.

Edward didn't need to think two times before he followed the party inside the building.

A lot of people in white clothes stood in shock inside the building, maybe because a group of military officers just had walked past them after something that didn't look human, and told them to move out of the way.

Since he was so small, none of people inside paid attention to the little boy that ran after the group of officers. Maybe it was good, maybe not.

Once he had followed them down into some kind of an underground under the building, he couldn't find them anymore. The little boy ran down one of the two paths, and didn't stop before he felt something touch his shoulder.

"Found you, Fullmetal-boy," a female voice said over him, and everything went black.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it^^ **

**I'm sorry to say that it ****probably won't be any updates before Sunday next week, since I'm going on a holiday again. I don't know if there is internet where I am going, but if it is, I would update earlier. Please don't hate me for it! And I didn't mean for the chapter to end this way, it just did! Again, sorry!**

**The poll are open 'till I get back, so if you want to check it out, you have plenty of time, I think^^ **

**Reviews makes the story going on 'till the end^^ **


	21. Chapter 21

**Finally back in town! And I am sooo sorry for leaving the last chapter the way I did! It was really not planed out, it just happened! I hope you can forgive me. **

**The poll I sat up is done, and the winner is. . . Happy Ending! It is still far, far into the future, I just like to have it thought out^^ **

**Review-answers:**

_**Deddosora-:**_** I am so sorry for that! But it is good that it makes you keep reading^^ Hope the waiting wasn't too long:) And that it was worth it^^ **

_**AnimexoverCartoons:**_** I'm glad you liked it^^ And I hope the waiting wasn't too long:) And I had a funny time away^^**

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 21**

Alphonse panicked when he found out that his brother had run after the car. Why did his brother always have to disappear? And most likely get into trouble later for it?

They couldn't even get someone to help them, since all the ones that could, already was in trouble with something else.

"Winry!" Alphonse said, trying hard to keep his cool. The girl turned her head toward him, and looked at him with scared eyes.

"Go back to the Colonel's house and wait there; I will come later with Brother."

"Just come back safe, both of you." The boy smiled. He knew she loved his brother, knew she was afraid that she would never get to say the things she wanted to him. And he wanted his brother to have the chance to say the same to her.

"Of course, we always do, don't we?" he laughed, before he ran off after his brother. Ling grinned, said goodbye to Winry, and ran toward the place he knew Ran Fan waited for him.

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Not long after he had run off, Alphonse caught up with the car that had been speeding past them. This time it was parked right outside of an old building, with his brother nowhere to be seen. Maybe he had run the wrong way inside one of the streets. After all, there was no way a three year old could catch up with a running car.

The panic started to fill him again. What if he couldn't find his brother? What if Edward had got caught up in some of the fighting in this part of the town?

Alphonse was about to run back the way he had come and choose another road, when he heard voices coming closer from the building. It sounded almost like shouting, like someone was yelling at another person for something. And the voice that was yelling belonged to nobody else than Riza.

Alphonse didn't need to guess two times to get the guess right about who she was yelling at. Roy.

Very soon the two of them were coming out of the building in front of him, and it was in fact Riza shouting at Roy. Like always.

Both of them stopped once they saw the teenager.

"Alphonse? Shouldn't you be somewhere watching Edward?" Riza asked. She didn't know that Ling had gone to find him.

"That's the problem, Riza. He disappeared again! He saw the Colonel driving past, and ran after the car. At the moment it happened, Winry and I was talking to Ling, and in the next minute, we saw him disappeared around a corner. Since that, I haven't seen him at all!"

"That damn child! Can't he just stay at one place for at least a little time?!" Roy let out an irritated sigh as he opened the door to the car parked outside the building.

"Now we have to find him _and_ fight off the ones who attacked our groups!" the man continued.

"For some reason I have a feeling that if we find one of them, we find the other," Riza said while climbing into the car.

"Yeah, Edward usual shows up where the danger is. According to the others, the enemy is heading toward laboratory 3." Roy sat down on the driver side, and waved for Alphonse to climb into the backseats. The boy did as they wanted him to, and not a minute later, the three of them were heading toward laboratory 3.

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Shortly after they had teamed up with Jean, who had followed Barry and Barry's body all the way over there, and gotten all the workers at laboratory 3 away, the group got to an underground where they split up once again to look over a bigger area. Jean and Roy headed one way, while Riza and Alphonse took another one.

The main point was to find Edward, Barry and the enemy.

Not long after they had walked away from Jean and Roy, Alphonse and Riza reached an open space in front of a huge door. With Barry and his up-sliced body standing right in front of the door. Riza lifted her hand up and covered her mouth. It was disgusting to see the sliced body.

A sound behind them got them to turn around. A woman with black hair stood in the opening to the room. It was her tattoo that got Alphonse to stare at her. It was the same as the one Greed had had. The Ouroboros. A serpent biting its own tail.

"So you decided to betray us, Number 66?" The woman asked, looking at Barry. The armor was about to answer, when they got their eyes on the small body the woman held in her left hand. The golden hair was way too familiar. Edward.

"Let the boy go!" Riza shouted once she got over the shock of seeing the little boy in that place. The woman grinned.

"I'm sorry, Miss. We need the boy for our plan. But we don't need you!" on the last comment, the woman's nails shot out and pierced Barry's armor, cutting him up to tiny pieces.

The woman's grin showed up again.

"Now, who of you two will be the first ones to follow that Colonel of yours and the other companion you had with you to the path of the dead?" Riza could feel all her feelings flaming up. Roy. Dead? Not possible! He couldn't! She wouldn't allow it! Tears started to run down her face as she pulled out her gun. She knew she couldn't shoot; after all, Edward was in the hands of the evil woman. But how much she wanted to! The woman said she had killed Roy! And Jean too!

While the truth behind the woman's words sunk into her, Riza's will to keep living faded away. She lived to keep her Colonel out of danger. And know she had failed that one thing. That one reason she hadn't given up yet.

The black-haired woman dropped the child in her hands on the floor, and took more steps closer to Alphonse and Riza.

The boy was too much in a state of shock and fear to even notice the woman's actions. Riza too blinded by her own tears.

Then, Alphonse noticed a shadow behind the woman. He recognized it, and clapped his hands, making a wall of stone appear in front of himself and Riza.

A loud boom rang through the room, and flames surrounded the woman, making her disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Don't think it is that easy to kill me!" she screamed, and recovered just like the man Riza had shot some hours earlier.

Roy sent her an evil look, and made the lighter he held in his hand sending out flames once again. The man's bloody appearing scared Riza more than she wanted to think of. A burning mark on his stomach showed the place the woman once had pierced her nails through him.

Once again the woman just recovered from the attack, and once again Roy made flames from the lighter. And finally the woman stopped rising from the dead. All that she once was, disappeared in ash and smoke, making only the body of Barry, Riza, Roy, Alphonse and Edward remain inside the room. Roy collapsed as a result from the wound he had gotten, and Riza stayed by his side while Alphonse ran over to his brother. The little three-year old was knocked out, most likely by the woman. There also seemed to be something else wrong with him, but Alphonse couldn't make it out.

The most important at the moment was to get Roy, Jean, who they guessed was in one of the other rooms down there, and Edward out and to a hospital.

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Winry was almost crazy from waiting when the phone Roy had in his house rang. The girl ran over to it faster than anyone could ever have thought anyone would be able to, and picked up the line.

"Hello," she said fast and worried. Her friends should have been back for a long while ago, after all.

"_Hey, Winry. Do you have time to drop by the hospital?"_ Alphonse didn't need to say more than that.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it^^**** And again, sorry for leaving the last chapter the way I did!**

**Reviews makes me keep writing^^ **


	22. Chapter 22

**First of all, thank you so much for all the reviews/favorites/alerts I got on the last chapter. Unluckily, my computer won't let me reply to the reviews T.T**

**Anyway, on to the story!**

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and if the characters are very OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 22**

Winry couldn't help but feel a little afraid while she walked over to the hospital Alphonse had told her to come to. Was the others badly hurt? And Edward? Did they find him?

Alphonse waited for her outside the hospital. To her fear, Edward was not standing beside him.

"Hey, Winry!" the boy called out once he got his eyes on her. Winry waved to him, and ran up to his side.

"Alphonse, what happened?" she asked as quickly as she could.

"We had a little in-run with people similar to Greed, you know, homunculus. Havoc and the Colonel were badly hurt. Brother was luckily only knocked out, or at least that's all the doctors thought. But he got some of the smoke from the Colonel's flames inside his lungs, so the doctors have to give him a shot with some medicine for it," Alphonse explained while the two of them walked inside. Winry let out the air she had kept inside her lungs since Alphonse had told her to come to the hospital. Luckily Edward wasn't badly hurt.

In the moment they entered the hospital, they could hear loud noises from one of the rooms close to the door they had just gotten in. then, the door to the room opened, and a golden-haired little boy came running out of the room faster than a thunder. The sound of metal against the floor made Winry laugh. She knew the little person that came toward them.

Small arms hugged the girl around the legs, while the person they belonged to hid behind her.

Two nurses came running toward them, the first one with a syringe in her hand. They stopped once they saw the two teenagers and the little boy hiding behind them.

"Oh, you are the little boy's brother, right?" one of them asked, looking at Alphonse. After all, Alphonse had been there when they had taken his brother away to give him the shot.

The boy nodded at the same time as Winry sat down and picked up the little child hiding behind her. Edward struggled to get free at first, but when his eyes felt on the syringe, he sat deadly still in her arms. Alphonse and Winry noticed the boy's action, and stared at him.

"Are you okay, Brother?" Alphonse asked while the nurses took some steps back to let the three friends talk in private.

The little boy muttered something they couldn't hear, before he hid his face into Winry's shoulder. Alphonse then started to laugh.

"I get it. Winry, don't you remember? Brother's afraid of needles!" he laughed out, smiling a little over his silly brother. Edward peeked out from Winry's shoulder and sent his brother a deadly look. His phobia of needles was nothing to laugh about!

Winry started to laugh as well, while she petted the little boy's head.

"Come on, Ed. When you are done with the shot, we can go and by you some ice-cream. How does that sound?" the little boy looked up at her, sent her a look that looked like he was considering if an ice-cream was a good enough exchange for getting unknown stuff put inside him by using something as scary as a needle.

As a result, the little boy let out a small whimper, and held out his arm for the nurses to stick the syringe into.

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While eating a huge ice-cream Winry and his brother had bought to him, Edward walked happily between them both. They were on their way back to Roy's house; after all, it was late.

Roy had said it was okay that they stayed there even when he still was at the hospital. He trusted Winry and Alphonse to keep Edward from making too much of a mess inside there.

Riza had also decided to stay there to watch over them 'till the house's owner came home. The woman's motherly feelings took a hold on her when she had heard that the children were going to stay there all alone.

The three of them didn't have to walk for a long time before Ling and Ran Fan showed up beside them, dragging them into a dark alley.

"How did the fight go?" Ling asked them about once they were sure no one listened.

"The Colonel and Havoc are at the hospital; the later one has lost his feelings in the legs and can't walk anymore. He also wants to retire from the military because of it. Besides that, I think it went okay. And for you guys?"

"Fighting Homunculi is piece of cake for one the princes of Xing!" the Xing-boy grinned. The two Amestrian teenagers stared at him, before a picture they created in their mind of Ling wearing a really weird dress made them fall on the ground, laughing. Ran Fan sent the two of them a really angry look, before they got a hold of themselves.

"So that makes you the next emperor?" Winry asked. The boy shook his head.

"There are 24 princes and 19 princesses, so I have still a long way to go before I reach that far," Ling answered.

Edward thought over what he had heard for a little while, before he looked from Ling to Ran Fan. With a sweet smile, the little boy walked over to the girl and tugged her arm to she looked down on him.

"Wan Fan? When Ling becomes an empewow, awe you going to become an empwess then?" It was a good thing Ran Fan still had her mask on, or the group would have been able to see her red face. And it didn't make it better when Ling started to laugh. The boy's brother and childhood-friend just stared from the boy, to Ling, to Ran Fan, and back again.

They knew Edward had always been smart, but how many three-year-old children could make up a thought like that? It truly wasn't weird that he was called a child prodigy.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it^^ **

**Reviews makes me write faster. **


	23. Chapter 23

**I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday, but I didn't have much time to update, and more people told me to update my other stories. . . **

**School's starting again soon, and before that I have to fix a lot of things, so I probably won't be able to update every day anymore. But I will update as soon as I get the chance to. **

**Anyway, on to the chapter!**

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and the characters are OOC. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

**Chapter 23**

"I just got to think of something." Edward was asleep in the bedroom behind them, and Alphonse, Winry, Ling and Ran Fan used the afternoon to exchange information about the battles earlier that week. Riza was still at the hospital with Roy, so they didn't expect anyone to just walk in yet.

"What, Al?"

"The homunculi wanted Brother for some reason, and they didn't care much if he was a three-year-old or a sixteen-year-old," the boy continued. Winry looked him over for a minute.

"You mean the homunculi made him become younger?" she asked.

"Maybe. The person who did it used alchemy, and the homunculi can't do that, but maybe the person acted for the homunculi?" the four of them sat in silence for a little while, before Ling looked up.

"Why don't we capture one and ask if they did it?"

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

"Ran Fan and I can sense it if they get close enough, you only have to get them to show up."

"The homunculus apparently wants Brother for something, and I doubt any of them would let him or I get hurt before that. . . Winry, would you give me the newspaper?" Alphonse said, the last one after a lot of thinking. Winry looked at him weirdly before she did as she was told to do. The boy looked it over quickly, before he grinned.

"Scar's in town."

"Scar?"

"The man who blew off Brother's arm, we met him right before we came to Resembool for a new arm," Alphonse explained to the confused Winry.

"Maybe we could get him to attack. That would probably lead the homunculus to come out, and then you two could capture one."

"And why would he attack us? He only goes for State Alchemist," Winry pointed out after reading over the article Alphonse had been looking over. The boy grinned again as he lifted something out of his pocket.

"Because I would go around in Central and swing with this one," the boy answered. In his hand, he held Edward's State Alchemist silver watch. The one thing that showed that he was a State Alchemist.

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"Al, are you sure this is a safe idea?" Winry asked as the two of them walked down the main street of Central. Winry had thought about spending the day with Gracia, Maes and Elicia while her friends tracked down the State Alchemist killer and the homunculi.

"Of course not, but it is the only idea we have."

"Just don't get killed." The boy waved her off with a smile. Of course he had no plan of getting killed. Who would then turn his brother back to normal? Who would then be able to get Winry and Edward together?

The girl waved back, and disappeared down the road leading to the place the Hughes-family lived.

Alphonse pulled out the watch, and hung it in his belt. It would be the best way to get Scar's attention, after all. He had even taken on some of Edward's old clothes, the red jacket and his usual black clothes, only to make him look like the Fullmetal Alchemist. After all, the brothers were very similar to each other.

Not long after he had started to walk with the watch, a car stopped beside him and someone opened the window.

"Alphonse, what are you thinking about? Haven't you heard Scar's in town?" Riza asked as she and Roy looked out at him.

"It's hard to explain," the boy answered. The two inside the car exchanged a look before Roy opened the door to the backseats.

"Jump in and explain, then."

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"So you and two others are doing this so that you can try to find out if the homunculi are responsible for making your brother younger than he is supposed to be?" Roy asked.

"That was the plan we made, yeah."

"And where are Edward and Winry at the moment?" Riza asked while she kept her gaze on the road in front of the car.

"Winry is visiting the Hughes', and Edward is still at your house, Colonel," the boy answered.

"You mean the shrimp is at my house alone?!" the Colonel said loudly.

"We did get someone to watch him."

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"Tell me again why we are babysitting a three-year-old?" Denny Brosh asked his companion about.

"The Major told us to do it, that's why," Maria Ross answered as her eyes followed the three-year-old that slept on the couch in front of them.

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"You asked Major Armstrong to find someone to watch him for you?" the Colonel asked a little shocked. Who knew what that man could have sat to watch the kid.

"Riza, stop the car," Alphonse said all out of the blue. None of the adults understood to begin with, before they looked out of the front window and found a man blocking the road ahead. A man with a scar across his face.

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**A/N: Hope you liked it^^ I'm sorry it is so short, but I had problems with the whole chapter . **

**Reviews makes the next chapter show up faster. **


	24. Chapter 24

**It's been some days since I last updated. . . . **

**Anyway, school starts again tomorrow, meaning; time is taken from me when it comes to updating. So, I put up a poll on my page about which story that should be my first priority. **

**O****nto the story!**

**I'm sorry if the grammar is horrible and the characters are very OOC. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. **

**Chapter 24**

"What are we doing when he woke up?"

"Don't look at me like I should know!"

Panic.

"Why do we have to babysit him again?"

Silence.

"Because, Brosh, for the hundredth time today; Major Armstrong told us to do so!" both Maria and Denny were about to go crazy. None of them had any idea to handle a three year old. Of course, it hadn't been so long since Denny's siblings had been that young, but he didn't remember how they had acted then.

The boy's eyes started to open as they talked, and Edward sat up on the couch while his hands tried to get the sleep out of his eyes.

The two adults stopped talking once they noticed that the boy was awake.

"What do we do now?" Denny whispered to the woman beside him.

"You think we should ask him what he wants to do?" the woman answered.

Edward looked around. Where were Winry and Alphonse? He couldn't see them anywhere. And who were these unknown persons that sat around the table just some meters away from the couch he had slept at?

Oh, that's right. They had told him that they had something to do, and that someone would come and watch over him.

"Hey, kid? Is there anything you want to do?" Denny tried out, unsure about what to say. The little boy blinked at him, before he looked down on the floor. Maria and Denny exchanged a look, before the woman went over to the bed and sat down next to the child.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, her motherly side getting out. The little boy tipped his head back and looked at her with big golden eyes.

"No," he answered simply.

"Do you want anything?" Those golden eyes stared into hers for a second, before he opened his mouth.

"Ice-cweam?" In the background could she almost hear Denny laughing silently.

"There is a shop right down the street, shall we go there and buy some ice-cream?" the woman asked as she sent her companion a cruel look. The little boy nodded, and got up from the couch. Luckily had he already been dressed, so they could go at once.

"And that nice man behind us are going to pay, so you can choose the biggest you want, okay?" Maria pointed a finger at Denny, who looked like someone had dropped the sky at him. Edward smiled sweetly, and followed the woman when she started to leave the room. Denny followed them once he had gotten over the betrayal from his companion.

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Edward ate up his ice-cream on the way back to Roy's house. Maria and Denny almost couldn't understand how that little boy could eat the entire thing. When they had first bought the ice-cream, it had been really big, and now was it almost gone.

"What's youw name?" the little boy asked as he looked up at the two adults. They looked at each other before they answered, they hadn't expected him to ask about that.

"I'm Maria Ross, and this is Denny Brosh. You are Edward, right?" at least they had been told his name when they got the job to watch him for the day.

"Mawia Woss and Denny Bwosh?" he asked as he watched them closely.

"That's right, little boy!" Denny told him proudly, not noticing the ice-cold stare the boy sent him before his anger showed up.

"HOW THE HELL AWE YOU CALLING A LITTLE BOY WHO CAN'T WATCH HIMSELF FOW A DAY?!?!"

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**A/N: I know, it is short. . . Please don't hate me for it . ****I just wanted to show what's going on around Edward while the others are fighting. **


	25. AN

**I just wanted to say that I have put this story on hold for the time being. The reason; I have a writer's block; the problem is not that I don't know what to write, its rather that I don't know how to put it down with words. I am so sorry, and I truly apologize for the long wait. **

**I promise I will start writing again once the new year begin^^ **

**So, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone so far! And thanks for sticking with this story so far. **

**GM **


	26. Chapter 25

**Really, long time no see^^ Thank you so much for all the reviews I have gotten ever since I put the story on hold and before that! The writer's block is almost gone now, so I spend some time rereading the story, and what a bad grammar I had! And probably still have XD **

**Rereading it a****lso gave me the will to finally removing the writer's block^^ Because, my lovely readers, you all made me want to continue^^**

**So, this is for all of you^^ From this point and out, the story will take a AU-line. If you wonder about something, just ask^^ Like always, I'm ready for everything you throw at me :D**

**So sorry for taking over seven months before I updated again. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

**Chapter 25**

The moment they reached the house, Maria would have put the key she had gotten into the locker and opened the door for the three of them. After that, they would have gone to the living-room, where Edward would have found a book and the two guards been left to stare at the young boy.

Except, none of this ever happened. When they finally reached the door, a loud boom could be heard through the big city and smoke could be seen above it, coming from a place just some streets away.

Before Maria and Denny could do anything, the little boy had started to run toward the trouble, not even giving them a look before he disappeared around a corner.

"What. . . Just. . . Happened?" Denny asked his partner about, staring after the little boy.

"Don't just stand there, Brosh! After him!"

* * *

He just knew the smoke had something to do with his brother. It couldn't be anything else.

The little boy hadn't cared much about the two military-soldiers who had bought him an ice-cream once he noticed the smoke. It wasn't that he wanted to cause them any trouble, but the feeling of his younger – yet older at the time – brother in danger made his feet run without even thinking about it first.

* * *

"What's wrong, Miss Winry?" Elicia's eyes stared up into Winry's blue once. The little girl had looked up once the older one stopped paying attention to the game they played.

"Nothing, Elicia, I just need to go down for some seconds," the teen rose from the floor and left the room.

Just some minutes ago, she had seen smoke coming from the city, and something told her both the Elrics would me messed up in something rather quickly. Even if Edward had been at Mr. Mustang's place with guards, more like babysitters.

It didn't take long before she stood in the Hughes' living-room, waiting for either Mrs. or Mr. Hughes to notice her.

"Is something wrong, Winry?" Mrs. Hughes must have seen the fear in her eyes because of the way she put her words.

"Did any of you see the smoke outside just now?" she asked polite, still afraid of the safety of her friends.

Mr. Hughes threw a look out of the window, before his eyes grew big.

"Now, that's something," he said, even keeping a regular voice. Both Winry and Mrs. Hughes followed his gaze; not only did smoke rise above the city, but people were also running around in the usual empty street, obvious away from something.

Not only that, but two military-soldiers were also running _against_ the stream of people, two officers Winry recognized from earlier that day.

It was the two Major Armstrong had sent over to watch over Edward while Alphonse and she were out.

"What are Ross and Brosh doing?" Mr. Hughes asked loudly, wondering.

"They were supposed to be at Mr. Mustang's house and watch Edward for us," Winry whispered.

In the blink of an eye where both Winry and Mr. Hughes on their way out of the house, grabbing their jackets as they started to run after the two soldiers.

"Gracia, stay inside with Elicia!" Mr. Hughes shouted over his shoulder toward his wife.

* * *

It didn't take them long to appear beside Ross and Brosh.

"What happened?" Maes asked, still running.

"There was a huge boom which created a lot of smoke, the next minute that little brat ran away toward it all. We tried to follow him for a while, but he was faster than us," Ross explained, not really realizing who she was talking with.

"Remind me never to ask the two of you to babysit Elicia, which made me remember; have you seen these new pictures of my cute little angel?" three sets of angry stares made him shut up earlier than ever. Usually, he would have overlooked them and still talked about what adorably cute thing Elicia did the day before, but the serious of the situation apparently helped.

"How could a little kid run away from you?" Winry asked, trying to keep a friendly voice. She was angry by the fact that Edward had gotten messed up in yet another dangerous thing, and tried hard not to let it go out on anyone.

This was his own entire fault for not staying where he was supposed to, but it still frightened her.

She just hoped they got there before anyone got hurt.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed it^^ **

**Hopefully, it would not take months before the next update, like this one took XD Again; so sorry! **


	27. Important Note

Dearest everyone.

I regret to inform you that this is not an update. However, it is a very important note that will decide the future of the story you have clicked on.

Due to real life and all that comes with it, I have had very little time to update or write at all lately. Along with loss of interest, this story has been put on hold for quite a while. Therefore, I have been wondering if I should stop the story. I do sincerely apologise for this, but it is a choice I had to take. I do not want to stop it, but I can't seem to find time for writing on this one recently. I know I am mean for even thinking such a thing, so I'm leaving it up to you to decide; if enough people say I shouldn't stop writing this, I'm not going to do so.

Therefore, I have poll on my page that will be up till the end of this week. The stories nobody seem to want continued are going to be removed. All votes counts, because if even one wants it continued, I would have problems removing it (I would feel guilty for not following that one person's wish for a continuation xD).

If you have something on your mind, please PM me or go back to an earlier chapter and leave a review, since I will remove this note if the story continues.

Once again, I sincerely apologise.

Yours truly

Gabriella Moon


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